The Sins of our Choices
by Rskde
Summary: Humanity faces a threat never known, an alien war. Near the end, many servicemen of the UNSC, or United Nations Space Command have amazing stories to tell, all documented into one big book, read to find adventures, the stories of numerous UNSC Service men and women, and the first contact wars, to the final battle of earth.
1. Prologue

The Sins of our Choices

The Innies were always a threat to us, even when the Covvies came they saw it as a chance to gain independence, and kill anybody in their way.

This is my story, my name is Private Ryan Shrake of the UNSC Spirit of Fire, currently assigned to the UNSC Prefect while of the Spirit undergoes repairs.

Year: Classified  
>Date: September 7th, UNSC Calender<br>Subject: Ryan Shrake  
>Age: 16<br>Year of joining: 14

"Let me get this straight, you joined when you were a teenager?" The man asks, the room we were in was dark, but light enough to show his body, but not his face.

It was the classic interrogation set up, two body guards behind the man, from the looks they were both ODST's.

"I asked you a goddamned question bud, your in deep shit so I would suggest answering." The man presses.

"Yes, I joined them at that age." I answer.

"Why and how did you enter the celle?" The man asks.

"Well..." I start.

The sun was bright on Rullins II, but it was rejected transfer through the caves we were entering.

One of the men stops, knocking on a door, it opens and we walk in. The room was lit nicely, it would've been nicer if MA5B's weren't sitting around, their owners stuffing bullets into their magazines.

"Who the hell is this kid?" I hear from across the room, a large man approaches me, easily 6'5 with several scars across his face.

"We don't know, he saw the posters and wanted to join." One of the men that led me through said.

"He's a fucking kid." Scar face says.

"Hey fuck you! I can easily do what-" I start, but I am quickly silenced by the sounds of assault rifles arming around the room.

"Kids got balls, I'll admit it, but I wanna test him." Scar face says to the recruiter, the room winds down, everyone resuming to what they were doing.

Scar face walks away and comes back ten minutes later with somebody else.

The lady was struggling, her hands were bound and a bag was over her face. She was shivering, her clothes were tattered and her pants were bloodied, a huge suggestion of what her captors had been doing with her.

"Her name is Chief Petty Officer Andrea Walker." Scar face says, running his finger down her pale face.

He throws her to the floor, and cocks a Magnum, civilian issued, he tosses it to me. "Shoot her." He says, watching me.

I stare down at the pistol, looking at her the shivering figure, I raise the gun, my hands shaking.

I try to will my fingers to pull the trigger, but I couldn't, I looked away and a loud bang echoed throughout the complex.

"Let me get this straight you little bastard, you shot that lady?" The man asks me, he had stood up, staring down angrily at me.

"Yes." I answer, no emotion in my voice.

He just shakes his head, standing and walking out, his ODST's file in behind him.

"Ryan." A soft voice says, coming from seemingly nowhere.

"Who the hell...?" I ask, but I am cut short by an AI appearing on the table in front of me.

"You are being assigned to the UNSC Marine Corps or be put in prison for the next century." The AI says, staring at me.

"Choose." It presses.

"Fuck it, I'll join your stupid Marines, my dad wanted me to anyway." I say, the AI nods and disappears.

The door opens and I am let out and escorted by the same ODST's, out of the compound and into the city of Reach.

_  
>Hey guys, Rsk here and I would like to start by saying that I have been reading a lot of Halo fanfiction by casquis, and I am inspired by him to write this, but instead with a Marine as my character instead of an ODST a long with a totally differing universe from his, this chapter was meant to be short.<p>

As always, read on.  
>-Rsk<p> 


	2. The Prefect

Chapter one: The Prefect  
>One year later<p>

The Pelican docked in the carrier's huge ass hangar bay, when I step out I am greeted with the sight of pilots and engineers scurrying around the hundreds of aircraft just sitting around.

"Shrake! C'mon!" Yelled one of my friends from Basic, Mason Corey, he was beckoning me over using his helmet.

I jogged over to him, I was wearing the standard UNSC Marine Corps armor, with my helmet and HUD glasses on as well, the world was a large connection with names appearing over the heads of the ones with helmets on, including Mason.

"What do you need?" I ask.

"Look down there." He points down the exit of the hangar, a fight was going on, one of the soldiers had Corporal chevrons on his shoulder, I couldn't see the other ones chevrons considering he was getting his ass handed to him.

Mason and I walk down and join the circle of spectators, the other fighter fell on his ass only to get kicked in the face by the Corporal. He fell backwards, blood dribbling from his cut lip.

"You come near Ghost one more time and I will fucking end you! Hear me?!" The Corporal yelled at the man, but the other fighter obviously wasn't listening, he was to busy laying on the floor staring up at the ceiling, blood still trickling from several places on his face.

The corporal spits on him, pushing past two other Marines before stepping into a barrack.

Mason laughs, punching me lightly on the arm before turning away, starting to walk away.

"Where're you going?" I ask him.

"Exploring, you German fuck." He says with a laugh.

I chuckle, it was true my ancestors were originally from Earth in Berlin, the large technologically advanced city in the middle of one of the planets continents.

Stepping away from the now dispersing circle, I found my barracks and stepped inside. There were four beds, each one assigned with a set of dog tags sitting on the pillow, which looked more like a brick than something you sleep on.

There were two others in the room, talking quietly, I eventually decide to sit next to one, joining in on the conversation.

"What's your name?" One asks, my HUD marks him as PFC Austin Locke.

"Private Shrake, nice to meet you, Locke." I tell him.

It takes him a couple of seconds to realize I had my HUD working before he laughs.

"Names Velstadt Khan." The other one says, extending his hand towards me, I shake it.

We talk for a little while before the speakers start going off, an ear piercing alarm echoing through them.

"Marines! Report to CIC immediately!" The speakers say.

"Fuck, we got an op soon." Locke says.

"What? I haven't even gotten a fucking rifle yet." I tell him, he just points over at my bed, I notice for the first time a small titanium box sitting under my bed, I walk over and open it.

A UNSC MA-5B and a Magnum sit inside, along with several magazines in a smaller box, just enough to fill all of my armor's ammo webbing.

I follow Khan and Locke to the CIC room, the whole Battalion was standing in the giant room, each Marine was being assigned to a squad.

"We got a Private Shrake here?" Someone yelled.

"Over here!" I called out, raising my hand, my rifle attached to the magnetic clamps on my back and my pistol in its designated holster.

He waves me over, I walk to him and he looks me over. "Corporal Jast, they call me Cake Walk, your in my squad for this op." He says, I nod and get into the line that was slowly forming for his squad.

"Marines! Attention!" A powerful voice booms.

Instantly three hundred pairs of boots click together, arms fly up into salutes for the man standing in front of all the squads.

"My name is Second LT Rodney Greene! I am saying this for the thirty new Marines on board!" He yells.

"Oo-rah!" One hundred voices yell out in sync, I assumed it was a welcome.

"Right, we are going to Rullins II, a Covenant war fleet just arrived there, so were going to teach them some manners for going into OUR system uninvited!" Greene yells.

I shiver, the system I had been living in just two years ago was now under attack.

"It will take us about a week to get there, however I still want you all in cryo sleep by five minutes after this briefing!" He yells.

"Oo-rah!" Everyone yelled back.

"Were dropping in via Pelican and then advancing on the enemy FOB that will be set up by the time we get there. An enemy Corvette plus four hundred infantry will be there, we will have artillery, Onager, and Hornet support while going in. Don't fuck this part up." He says, not having to yell anymore.

"After that we will be regrouping and attacking any other target Command feels like giving us to hit! Am I understood?!" He yells now.

"Oo-rah LT!" We yell.

"Go freeze Marines!" He yells, we all jog out in lines, stripping off our armor and entering the deep space refrigerators that we call cryo chambers.

_  
>I don't mean to start a streak of short chapters, but I did. The next one will probably be longer if I get some support from you all! Hope to see you next time.<p>

-Rsk


	3. Boots on the Ground

Chapter two: Boots on the Ground  
>Date: February 16th, 2531 UNSC Calender<br>Private Ryan Shrake, UNSC Marine Corps

I was woken up to alarms blaring throughout the ship, I sat up, the men and women around me already getting dressed after their time in the freezer, some were even grabbing their rifles and hurrying out of the cry chambers and I hadn't even put my pants on yet.

I quickly got changed, grabbing my helmet and armor, strapping it to my undersuit like they had taught me in Basic.

Once I was ready, I grabbed my rifle and jogged out to the hangar, Marines were already filing into their lines, I spotted Jast after a minute of aimlessly wandering. He was talking with an ODST, a female to be specific, she had pale skin and black hair, her face didn't have much of an expression but she was oddly beautiful for her skin tone. Jast had his helmet under his arm, I couldn't hear the conversation but it was quickly ended when the LT stood in front of the battalion.

"Marines! Attention!" He yelled, we all snapped into attention, staring directly ahead.

"The Covenant thinks they have the upper hand in this fight! However, they did not expect Third Battalion, now did they?!" He yelled, scattered Oorahs went up around the giant room.

"Corporal Jast, board the fucking Pelican and get ready, radio will be sent out for when we land." Greene said, Jast nodded and boarded, the rest of the squad followed.

When I stepped on, I sat down and strapped in, but Jast motioned for me to stand, I did so. Jast pointed over at the M247 hanging out of the side of the ship, I walked over to it, bracing the butt of the giant gun against my shoulder and got ready as the Pelican roars to life, lifting up and going straight down off of the ship, making me stumble and hit the large metal wall to my left. The other three Pelicans flew out of the hangar as the Prefect got ready to go back out of the atmosphere.

"Third squad! Orders came in early! We are going to be capturing a large office building outside of the compound we are assaulting, we will then defend against the bastards until further orders, stay frosty!" Jast yelled, several veterans pounded their boots on to the floor of the Pelican.

I looked over my shoulder, my MA-5B was still slung over my shoulder, my Magnum still sitting in its holster. I then turned back to my front, focusing down the sights of the M247. My HUD flared to life with targets, connecting to the gun and helping me aim as the Pelican flew.

"Get ready!" The pilot yelled from the cockpit, green plasma started exploding around our plane, causing it to shake with ferocity.

The bird landed, I ejected a couple of rounds towards an elite before running out and pulling my MA-5B off of my back. I followed Jast into the large building, the only engineer in our squad started working on the elevator while everyone else made barricades out of counters and couches that were sitting around in the lobby, I stared in awe, watching them work.

Once the barricades were set up, the engineer was done, half of the squad went up while the others stayed, including me.

We sat at the barricade, our guns aimed at the door of the building. Suddenly pink crystals broke through the windows, smashing into the cover we were hiding behind, exploding after three seconds, sending pink shards around us. Then came plasma, I could make out the shapes of little aliens running around ahead, I fired at them, my aim shaky from the initial barrage of gunfire.

I heard a gurgling noise, I looked to my left to see a Marine with one of the pink crystals in his throat, it started glowing so I dove away, watching his esophagus explode and shower everyone around him with blood.

The doors were smashed open and the smaller aliens, Grunts started pouring through, rushing for the barricades while firing tiny pistols at us. I got up, wiping some blood from my HUD glasses before opening up on the Grunts, they fell to the floor with blue blood splattering behind them, some even threw up their hands and started running before an angry yell from behind them sent them charging again.

I reloaded, the Grunts were starting to come in lesser numbers, but I could hear machine guns clicking to my right, then the sound of metal clanging to the floor, I looked to my right and saw a massive alien, a glowing sword in its hand with a Marine impaled on it, our line broke and we started to fall back, firing at the massive armored creature.

It literally shrugged off our bullets, throwing its first victim to the floor before charging to claim another prize. The Marine in front of me was caught in the shoulder by plasma, he fell to the floor screaming before he was quickly silenced by another glowing sword.

"Oh fuck!" I yelled, starting to panic.

The floating sword turned to me, another armored creature appeared before my eyes, walking towards me with its sword raised. I did the one thing any sensible person would do, I emptied my clip into the bastard, my bullets spraying into his armor, seemingly deflecting off of it, the Marines around me started to help, a glowing yellow light flickered around it, the alien charged me, I pulled the trigger again and heard a sound any Hollywood director would be proud of: click.

I quickly flipped the gun over my shoulder, my magnetic clamps attaching it to my back before unholstering my pistol, but it was already in my face. It reeled its hand back, slapping me across the face, sending me tumbling to the floor, my helmet rolling off of my head and stopping in front of the elevator. The elevator... I think to myself, I scramble for the entrance, firing my magnum blindly behind me.

The creature roared and charges, I make it into the elevator before it runs in, collapsing on top of me. Wait what?

In front of the elevator stands an ODST, along with the remaining Marines from our defense slowly loading into the elevator, the ODST backs in, the door closes before the other warrior could run in.

I stand up, the ODST slams my helmet into my chest, I grab it, placing it on my head.

"Tighten those straps, kid." The ODST says, turning away from me.

"Defense, come in, what the hell is going on down there?" I hear Jast ask.

"We got wiped across the floor, Corporal." My HUD marked the voice as Specialist Mike Carson.

"Fucking hell, good enough but we need to buy more time, the assault isn't going so well, we only diverted a quarter of the enemy reinforcements." Jast says. A fucking quarter? I think to myself.

The elevator dings and we are on the fifth floor, the top floor of the building, we are met by barricades and more Marines, aiming at the door. We all pile out, someone shoots the elevator console when everyone had exited, the doors close and the elevator console shuts off.

"Right! Carson, get your team at the stairs and set up, I want these bastards dead before they reach this floor!" Jast yelled from behind the barricade.

"Yes Corporal!" He yells back, I hadn't even realized he was leading our fire team until now, but I followed him anyway, we entered the stairway only to be met with several bird-like aliens, or the Jackal as my HUD marked them.

It was a simple concept of ten Marines opening fire point blank with assault rifles on the weak birds, sending them falling back down the stairs, twitching. A roar came from the bottom of the staircase, I watched as Elites clambered up the stairs, slow as hell.

We all put our guns over the railing, aiming down at them.

"Fuck'em up!" Carson yelled, our assault rifles opened up with a roar of our own, raining hell on to the struggling aliens.

"Anybody get that recorded?" Someone yelled.

"Our HUDs are always recording you dipshit!" Someone else replied, bringing some chuckles from the broken Marines.

The joking stopped as soon as the other Elites realized that we were up there and started firing plasma rapidly towards us, melting the railing and nailing a Marine under his helmet, he falls to the floor, not a word or time to scream.

"Frags! Throw'em all!" Carson yelled. The nine Marines left pulled the pins off of their grenades, rolling them under the melting railing down on to the Elites.

Several explosions later, the firing stopped.

"Carson, this is Jast, the enemy is sending reinforcements, get back to our position."

"Copy, how many to be exact?" Carson asked.

"The enemy has reverted their attention from attacking the compound with the other three squads to bringing this place to the ground." He answered.

"Of fucking course!" Carson yelled, having already cut the line, we followed him through the cubicles back to Jast, gunfire was emitting from down the hall. Five Marines and the ODST were firing out of a window, plasma meeting them by flying around them, they ran over to us before a low humming emitted, Covvies started jumping through the same window, about twenty of them before they stopped, a purple flash flew by the window behind us.

We opened up on the reinforcements, they took cover and returned fire. Plasma flew directly next to my head, I crouched down and fired a couple of shots towards a Jackal, causing its head to snap up, purple blood flying behind it as it fell.

I heard a roar, four elites, holding energy swords charged us, forcing us to slowly move back while they ran. The head elite went down, but the biggest one made it to us, impaling a Marine and flinging him out of the window next to us before finally dying, causing the plasma fire to cease.

"That was it? Twenty of them?" Carson asked in disbelief.

"There's probably more." Jast said.

A green bolt flew through the window next to me, flying in front of my face, inches from hitting before smashing into the wall to my left.

"Sniper! Find cover!" Jast yelled.

More sniper rounds flew through the windows as we jumped into cover, along with a couple of plasma rounds.

"They are using the building adjacent to us!" A PFC yelled.

"Fuck it! Down the stairs Third, were getting the fuck out of dodge!" Jast yelled, leading the way down the staircase.

We went down a set before Jast took a bolt to the chest, from a floating plasma rifle.

Another elite materialized, my HUD actually bothering to mark this one as a Spec Op. It charged towards me, pulling out an energy sword while the squad opened up. The elite rushed me, slashing me across the chest before I blacked out, my gun clattering to the floor, my hands holding the slash across my armor.

"Shrake!" I heard through my muddled thoughts.

I felt a slap across my face, I woke up, sitting straight up, looking around.

"Glad to have you back, pussy, sword didn't even pierce your undersuit." Jast said, picking up my gun and handing it me.

"How long was I out?" I ask him.

"Three minutes." He said, I noticed the elites corpse joined by two other Marines, one of them headless while the other had two large stab wound in his chest, there dog tags were removed and we moved on. That made us a ten man squad in total, we already lost eleven other Marines in the first hour of fighting.

We slowly made it out of the building, outside wasn't much better. The saddest thing was no matter how many Covvies we had killed, human casualties ended up being worse, outside was the occasion shell of a wraith and a corpse of an elite, but the amount of civilians and local Army men on the ground was sickening. We walked out an examined this mess before continuing forward, the other three squads had already retreated, now were jogging out of the city into the small forest that was on the outskirts, I wasn't paying too much attention on where we were going, I was just keeping my finger wrapped around the trigger. We entered the forest, that's when things went to hell.

I heard a rustling sound to my left, with no hesitation I shot the small bush covering whatever had just made that noise, an alien scream filled the forest as the Jackal fell to the ground, looking at this one closely, it was bigger than the other birds we had faced inside the building.

"Skirmishers!" Jast yelled, we started going faster, our motivation was the needle rounds flying by our heads as we crashed through our new hell.

I heard a scream, this one human, I stopped and turned around to see a Marine with a glowing needle in his shoulder, I ran over, ripping it from his armor and throwing it away, causing the wound to spurt out blood. We kept running, I was surprised that Marine wasn't crying his eyes out, must've been adrenaline but at that point it was the only thing keeping us alive.

I heard another cry, I saw Jast collapse, a plasma round had collided with his back, causing him to lurch forward. I ran past him and the circle of Marines providing cover while Carson checked him.

"Shrake! Where the fuck are you going?!" I heard in my comms channel, I cut the line quickly, my breath starting to get tagged as I sprinted through the forest.

I burst out from the trees, several needle rounds following me. I noticed a small neighborhood, nobody was there, but the place seemed familiar and safe.

Oh fuck.

I sprinted to the first house, aiming my gun at the door. With my left leg I broke it down, walking in and looking around. There was one broken window, the floor was covered in blood. I took a step forward, quickly switching my gun to the left side, a corpse was sitting on the floor, a small girl. I nearly dropped my gun, but I shook my head and continued on, gingerly stepping over my former sister.

I mounted the first stair, pushing myself forward upstairs, I pushed the door to my dad's room, the door fell forward, collapsing. I saw a body, with no head, a Civilian Standard Issue Magnum site next to him, the body of an elite slumped in the corner. I took a shaky breath, falling to my knees and staring at my dad.

_  
>I watched as the pretty lady's head explode, her body falling back and slumping against the cave wall. I dropped the Magnum, staring defiantly at Scar Face, he was nodding in approval, he stepped forward, clapping his hand down on to my shoulder.<p>

"Welcome." He said, grinning and walking away, the recruiter watched me quietly as I walked over to one of the Innies, the man was tall and had blonde hair, I couldn't see his eyes behind his sunglasses. He handed me an assault rifle, which I nearly dropped when he let go of it. I heard some snickers, but I lifted it and grabbed a magazine, slamming it into the gun.

"Fellow saviors of the Outer Colonies!" I heard someone yell.

We all turned and looked up at him, the man was about 5'9 and had a black beard with blue eyes, an M7 SMG in his hands.

"Today we go on our first mission, exciting? Right?" He asked several answered with cries of defiance, against the UNSC, and CMM.

"If you would all follow me, please." He said, walking towards the exit, we all followed, someone took my rifle and handed me a small pistol instead, I glared at him but he just shrugged and kept following the bearded man.

We exited the cave, a civilian aircraft was sitting outside, our people plus five others were boarding it, we flew off to a different part of the planet, which took about an hour of staring awkwardly at all the people who knew each other, but not me, not yet.

"Ten seconds!" The pilot yelled, the craft starting to descend.

The craft hit the ground and we exited, rushing towards a gathering of people, all looking around anxiously.

"Right, Satera cell, on me!" I heard, Satera was the city closest to my home, back on the other side of the planet.

We moved into a club, everyone there seemed drunk and was having a good time, until the bearded man shot a round into the ceiling, diverting all attention to him.

"Everyone down!" He yelled, almost everyone complied except for three men and a woman, all reaching for magnums, CMM patches on their right arms. The men all looked similar, buzz cut and the fresh determination of a soldier, the woman had long blonde hair and had the look of a veteran in her eyes, maybe she was in the Rain Forest Wars.

I didn't get to find out as our cell opened up on the Marines, sprawling their bloodied bodies across the counter. The second everything calmed down, somebody screamed.

"911 we need-." She started, cut off by a bullet entering her brain.

I shakily breathed out, the barrel of my pistol smoking. The man behind me cheered, slapping me on the back, but he was silenced by the bearded man.

"Spread out! Cop'll be here soon!" He yelled, I walked upstairs, crouching next to a window, my pistol aimed down at the street as police sirens filled the air, even a Pelican loaded with armored men landed in the middle of the street, engaging one of the other cells here with us, the fire fight dragged on for ten minutes before the police stopped firing, the armored men moved behind their cars, the fire fight them resumed and stopped again, several police officers lie dead, but I couldn't imagine the losses on our end.

I heard an order from downstairs, the sound of doors being broken open and civvies screaming filled the building as police officers moved in. Then everything went black as a large explosion filled the building.

_  
>I stood up, walking out of the house, comms started to fill my helmet again, and before long Jast realized I was still alive.<p>

"Shrake, you doing alright? Where'd you run off to?" He asks.

"I'm just fine, I diverted their attention north bound, I'm currently taking cover inside of the last building down the street." I replied, a plasma bolt flies past me, and I double time it to the house I told Jast about.

I use my shoulder and my momentum to smash through the door, stumbling and falling on to the floor, a scream seemed to shake the house. I looked up, a young girl, must've been about seventeen was standing in front of me, her face in an expression of horror, she seemed to calm down a little bit after realizing I was human, but then she crossed her arms, staring at my polarized visor.

"Who the hell do you think you are? Breaking into my house like that!" She yells, causing me to quickly stand up, putting a finger to my lips and pushing her out of sight of the door.

"What is it?" She whispers, she seemed scared now.

I put my finger up to my lips again, only one hand gripped around my rifle, an alien grunting noise came from the door, then the sound of stomping on hard wood, making its way towards us.

I raise my rifle, a grunt comes into sight, it looked bored. I jumped forward as quietly as possible, hooking my rifle around its throat and dragging it backwards, I then take off its gas mask, methane quietly leaks out as the Grunt chokes for respiration. The little alien then slumps forward, I quietly placed it down, looking over at the girl, who had her hand up to her mouth and looked like she was ready to scream.

She lifted her hand, opening her mouth to speak, but I quickly put my hand over her mouth again, more footsteps. Her breath was getting quicker, sending warm puffs of air and moistening my hand slowly.

I sling my rifle, drawing my magnum and slowly backing up with her, we make it to the back door before another alien comes around the corner, where it is immediately blasted by my sidearm, doing a small spin before hitting the ground, it was a jackal.

I hear grunts of alarm, and I push the girl out the door, holstering my pistol and unslinging my rifle quickly, aiming it down the hallway, adrenaline pulsing through my veins.

When nothing came I ran out, slamming the door shut behind me.

"What was that?" She asks.

"Covvies, keep moving." I tell her, starting a jog towards the forest, the first house in the neighborhood would have to do until third squad got here.

"Shrake, where are you?" Jast asks.

"Moving up to the first house, I got a civilian."

"Woah, slow down, which house?"

"The one closest to the forest." I answer.

"Right, were on the way, keep that civilian safe, Jast out." He says, cutting the line.

We moved into the house, this door was unlocked so luckily I didn't have to break it down. Explosions in the distance fade away as I close the door, taking off my helmet, against UNSC regulations, and running a shaky hand through my hair.

"You never told me your name." The girl says quietly.

"Shrake." I tell her, slumping against the wall next to the door.

She rolls her eyes. "Your first name, dumbass

I depolarizer my HUD, looking her in the eyes, she had green eyes and black hair, she had more of an adult look about her, but right now she was giving me a death glare that could silence an elephant.

"Ryan." I tell her. "UNSC Marine Corps, I lost my squad and found you sitting in your house." I answer cheerfully.

She just sighs, sitting down next to me, my HUD polarized again and I can hear her mentally groan, almost causing me to laugh my ass off.

"Peyton." She answers,

"Got it." I tell her, just as Jast opens another line with me.

"Shrake, were outside get the fuck out here." He says, cutting the line.

"Well, Peyton if you would please follow me." I tell her, standing up with a grunt before rolling my shoulders and unholstering my MA-5B, the ammo count read zero. I ejected the magazine, letting it clink to the floor before pushing a new one into the chamber.

Peyton stands, and follows me as I walk out of the small house, only to be met with six other Marines. We had nine last I checked.

"Were going, bailing from this shit hole for now." Jast says, obviously distressed. "There's an FOB not to far from here, we'll head that way and rest until Greene decides to pull his thumb out of his ass." He says, my eyes widen, nobody ever spoke about their CO like that it seemed, but this made me respect him a little bit more.

We kept walking, Carson was talking with Peyton the entire time, but she didn't seem to respond, staring ahead at my back, at least that's what she was doing when I looked back there.

"So, where's your parents?" Carson asks.

"Fuck off." She says, he seems to back away after that.

"Listen bitch-." He starts.

Out of nowhere a plasma bolt slams into his chest, causing him to fall backwards, his helmet falling off behind him. We all hit the deck, firing on the source, three red elites stood in the trees, firing plasma rifles at us while one of the Marines was fumbling for Carson's reserve bio foam, quickly applying it and causing Carson to scream in pain.

"Move it! Double time and were out!" Jast yells, causing me to jump to my feet, for the first time in this fire fight I start to fire, emptying my magazine into one of them, causing it to fall over dead. It's friend roared in anger and pulled an energy sword from its belt, throwing its rifle away and charging towards me, causing the four Marines not including me to open up, killing the Elite.

"Carson's good! We gotta go!" The Marine, Ramirez according to my HUD yelled.

We all ran as hard as we could, no more plasma rounds were flying, but there was an urgency for Jast to move.

"Corporal! Why are we still running? There's no more of them!" I called up the line of Marines, huffing as energy drained from my body.

"Shut up! Were being hunted!" Jast yells, the way he said the word gave me motivation to keep running. Out of nowhere an explosive green blob of plasma flew past, literally disintegrating a tree.

"Hunters! Light'em up!" Jast yelled to us, we turned around and crouched down, spreading out horizontally while the behemoths charged through the forest. We all opened fire, the beasts raised what seemed like a shield, deflecting our rounds and continuing to charge.

"Grenade!" Jast yells, I see a small sphere fly towards them, exploding and causing one to trip, it quickly gets up and charges again, they were about twenty feet away from the closest Marine who was now backing up slowly, emptying his clip into the Hunter.

Hunter number 1 reached the Marine, slapping him with its shield, sending the Marine flying into a tree, a loud crack is audible through the trees, the Marine's body falls to the ground, unmoving. But that wasn't enough, the Hunter used its massive foot to stomp the soldier's head in, blood splatters all around them. Meanwhile Hunter number 2 was closing in on me.

"Shoot the orange!" Jast yells, I wasn't sure what he meant, but I kept up the fire, after my third clip it fell dead in front of me, orange blood leaking from all of the holes in its corpse. The loudest and scariest road pierced my ears, the remaining Hunter was charging us, faster than before. I noticed a flash of black behind the Hunter, Peyton was picking up the dead soldier's MA5B, awkwardly firing it at the Hunter's back. The monster turns firing a fuel rod blast at her, she drops the gun and runs out of the way, screaming.

The Hunter charges her, I fire at its back, standing and running towards it.

"Hey fuckface!" I yell, it doesn't turn so I jump on its back, which caught its attention, it spins, trying to throw me off, but I had different plans. I pulled a fragmentation grenade from my webbing, pulling the pin and shoving it into the colony of worms at the armored beasts neck.

I jump off, rolling and tackling Peyton to the ground as another fuel rod glob flys over us. I hear a roar, and the sound of the frag going off, obliterating the Hunter.

Only now did I realize I was on top of Peyton, she was breathing heavily, her eyes glazed over. I stand up, she does the same, nodding to me, I was surprised that she didn't yell at me for tackling her while I had titanium armor on.

"Thank you." She says, I nod. We kept walking.

_  
>Authors note<br>Hello, people if any, who have read this fic, I thank you for support, if any, and hope you enjoyed this chapter. Did you like it? We aren't done with this planet but I still thought it was in order to write a really long chapter so that I can use it as motivation for future chapters. Thank you all for reading, hope you enjoyed.

See ya next time.  
>-Rsk<p> 


	4. The Rise of Third

Chapter three: The Rise of Third  
>Date: February 17th, 2531, UNSC Calendar<br>Private Ryan Shrake, UNSC Marine Corps  
>First Contact Wars<p>

I closed the door behind me after saying goodbye to Peyton, she was headed to a refugee camp, we had fallen back to the FOB and received our welcome from a battalion of Covvies who we engaged in a firefight for about an hour before finally driving them off, I still hadn't been hit for whatever reason. I looked around the room before falling to my knees and staring forward, my adrenaline was wearing off and I realized how many Marines we had just lost in third squad alone. I bury my face in my hands, causing my helmet to roll off my head and hit the ground in front of me, I didn't tighten the straps very often, allowing the slightest things to knock it off.

For the first time in what seemed like forever I started crying, imagining the fire fight inside and outside of the building, third squad alone had a eighty five percent casualty rate, replacements were probably on the way but it was still insane how the enemy manages to kill so many of us with such little force.

I hear a knock on the door, it creaks open as I turn around, Khan and Locke enter the room, Locke seemed beyond energized and Khan was quiet.

"Shrake! I got PFC!" Locke announced, his eyes sparkling with joy.

"Nice..." I answer, picking my helmet up and sitting down.

"What's up?" Khan asks, sitting next to me.

I look over at him, my HUD depolarizes, probably showing my red eyes from crying. "My squad got out with five guys." I answer.

"Well shit." Locke and Khan say almost simultaneously.

"Yeah, my first deployment, too." I say, bitterly.

"Not like you were leading." Khan said, staring at me, I picked up my head, meeting his stare. "I guess your right." I said, standing up.

"I'm gonna go on that makeshift wall the Army built out there, take out my anger on a Grunt passing by or something." I said, Khan nodded, Locke just grinned as I walked out.

I picked up my rifle by the door, attaching it to my back before putting my helmet back on, I blinked a couple of time, the visions of my dead comrades filling up my mental capacity, it was breaking me slowly. When I got to the wall I crouched down, setting my rifle up and checking my HUD for music of any sorts.

I sighed, ONI firewalls didn't like me poking around music files during a technical combat mission, so of course I decided to break in. Some Army goon had decided to upload a bunch of music from about four hundred years ago, I opened the file and turned on a song.

Ohh yeah...

Won't you follow me? Into the Jungle.

Ain't no god on these streets, into the jungle...

The song continued these lyrics, making me bob my head to the beat, a Grunt walked into sight and I shot him once the singer said the word 'Jungle', the blue blood from its chest sprayed the brick wall behind it, making some kind of graffiti that made some of the Marines around me laugh.

"Third squad, this is Jast, move to the command tent, I will be waiting for you." Corporal Jast said over the radio.

"Gotcha, Cake Walk." I say, hopping down from the wall, my song had ended so I just turned it off, not bothering with it anymore. I walked to the command tent, I was confused when I was greeted by a full squad of Marines, reinforcements had come quickly.

"Marines!" Jast calls out from the front of the line. "The UNSC has decided that instead of shooting Covvies, we are going to the other side of this rock to take out an Innie cell who was responsible for the recent airport bombings, they decided to take cover here under UNSC operation, so were gonna fuck'em up, oorah?" He yells.

"Oorah!" We yell back, my cry was quieter, my mind was racing at the possibilities at which cell it could be. We left the area via Pelican and a half hour later, we descended next to a cave system that had markings on the front of it. The place looked too familiar.

We took cover in front of the place and sat there, Jast wouldn't tell us why or order us to move so we sat around, aiming at the entrance.

An audible creaking noise filled the landscape as the giant metal doors open, a squad of Innies pouring out and engaging our squad, the fire fight should've been over in minutes, but of course the new guys were dragging us down, including me.

I aimed at one of them, I pulled the trigger as my gun sprayed wildly, bullets flying by my head didn't make it much easier to aim. I pop up again, firing a burst off into one of the Innie's neck, he fell over with a choking noise that made me shudder. More Innies poured out, I started to hear frantic cries of Marines as the enemy got off more shots.

Suddenly, something unexpected happened. The sound of metal slamming into the ground went up around us, six ODST's jump out of their SOEIV's, spraying SMG's and M247's at the enemy, quickly killing them off.

We push up with the ODST's, stacking up on the door before entering and looking around, the ODST's turned on the flashlights on their big-ass helmets, we turned the flashlights from our gun's on, sweeping the entrance with ease.

"On me." Jast orders, we move behind him, no contact or any sound as we near the main area. We stack up on the door that leads into the place I had called home for only a day before kicking it down, Jast falls over as an earth shattering crack fills the room.

Scar face stands there next to the bearded one, Scar holds a M6 while the bearded one aims a rifle at us, did I mention the squad of Innies behind them?

They opened up on us, I quickly hooked my hand under Jast's armor, he groans as I pull him back which all things considered is a good sign. Jast had a big dent in his paldron, blood pouring out of it. Ramirez quickly relieved me of dragging him, the Marines now starting to toss flash bangs into the room, my helmet's ear pieces close, helping my ears when the flash bangs go off, we enter the room and kill them all.

I looked around, the bodies were being stacked while Jast, with the help of Ramirez examined a set of dog tags hanging by a large blood stain on a concrete wall. I almost cry out when I realize where the stain was from.

"Fuck!" He yelled, snatching the dog tags and walking out of the large room. Our squad follows, we walk out of the cave as the memories begin to flow.

I groan as I wake up, I try moving my arms but they refuse, I realized I was surrounded my rubble and pieces of concrete. I hear yelling, and more gun fire as I sit there, tears start to flow from the pain.

After awhile the gunfire ceases, I was still unsure on how I was alive, but I could feel my torn t-shirt with the burns from the explosive on the back of my arms and legs.

A bright light came out of seemingly nowhere, as my eyes adjust I see an ODST staring down at me, feminine look to her armor and a helmet with a pink stripe on it. I see my reflection on her polarized visor, my face was caked in dirt and my forehead was cut, that was all I could see before she turned and walked away.

I sat there in disbelief until she came back with another ODST, a male who started to help her lift the rubble off of me. The pain was agonizing, like I had broken every home in my body, which I probably had. The girl helps me out, I cry out when she pulls me up, her visor depolarizes. She had blue eyes and brown hair, she stared at me with a worried look on her face, much like a mother would to her son.

"C'mon, were getting you some help." The other ODST grunts, they both help me out of the destroyed building. I'm placed in an ambulance and rushed off to a hospital where I am fully treated, comfortable for once, until the ONI spook came.

"Hello." He says, sitting down, just me and him in my room.

I stare at him, not saying anything.

"I was watching some of the police dashboard cameras, and I was wondering, what were you doing in that club?" He asks me, a good question.

"I don't know." I answer.

"Kid, don't lie to me, I saw you in that window with your pistol, your one of the attackers." He says, opening a file and thumbing through it.

"I didn't know they were planning this." I answer, staring him in the eyes.

"I'm sure, your boss escaped before setting off that bomb to clean up the evidence, but he's got a broken link, now doesn't he?" The man asked, he reminded me of a rat, scrawny and his face seemed to just drill into you, like he could steal everything from you in a second.

"I guess so." I answer him.

"Not very talkative? That's OK, we have torture tables for that." He tells me, his eyes show me he was being deathly serious.

"I just wanted to let you know how long you are going to be in jail." He says.

"How long?" I ask him defiantly, but in reality I was scared.

"Two years, then you will be interrogated to see if we need to move you to high security and keep you there forever." He answers.

"Don't I get a trial?" I ask.

"Yes, of course, and if your family pays bail then I guess nothing will happen other than a reeducation class and probation." He says, sighing in distaste.

I nod, I knew my dad would probably pay it... Right?

We were loading back on to the Pelican, I couldn't stop looking at the cave system we were about to blow sky high.

Oh well.

We took off before the massive explosion shook the earth, headed back to base with everyone still intact. The Pelican shook violently as a pretty display of different colored plasma launched all around us, some of the deadly flak hitting the bird.

"Hang the fuck on!" The pilot screams from the cockpit, I heard the sound of glass breaking, I looked over at the cockpit from where I was sitting, the pilot was slumped over in her chair while her co pilot was freaking out.

"Renee!" He yelled, unhooking himself as the bird starts to go into a free fall to the ground. He shakes the pilot, but the falling velocity of the bird took him off his feet, the broken windshield sucking him out. His screams die out as the bird continues towards the ground.

"Marines! Strap in if you-." Everything went black.

I groaned, a good indication I was still alive. My vision slowly blurs as I start to sit up, but I am immediately halted by my spine exploding in pain, the crash must've broken some bones and hurt my back because of the amount of pain that was flowing through my system. I try sitting up again, this time my body allows it. I was lucky to be alive, my seat belt was severed and there was blood all around me, but no Marines. I look up and see my MA5B where I left it, attached to the wall, I grab it and pull back the bolt, walking out of the Pelican.

I hold my hand up to my eyes as the sun blinds me, when my eyes refocus I noticed the ground in front of me was stained in the blood of Marines and Covvies. More Marines were laying dead, about four, while the enemy had only taken two casualties. I sigh, trying to find the closest radio line for my HUD to connect to.

My radio connects, and is immediately filled with static, I was on my own again. "Fucking hell I'd better get promoted for this." I mumble to myself, jogging into the field in front of me.

I hear a low growl and I hit the dirt, flipping around to aim at the source. All of a sudden, I'm surrounded, elites with Spec ops armor and energy swords materialize around me, looking blood thirsty and pissed off. One of them growls something and the circle starts to close around me, I flip my gun around in a circle, watching them get closer. Another growl, and the elites stop except for one who dashes forward, slashing my gun in half. "Fuck!" I yell, falling backwards.

I hear a nasty gurgling sound, it seemed like they were all laughing, they all disappeared except for the one that had attacked me. "Pitiful." It spits, towering over me.

"Not so intimidating yourself." I reply, but in reality I was freaking out, this thing was talking to me like a human would.

It laughs and kicks me in the ribs, I cry out as a small crack comes from me. "Your nothing." It answers.

"Then why keep me alive, squid?" I ask weakly, holding my ribs.

"Curiosity." It answers, literally sitting down next to me, it's hand pressed against my back to keep me from standing. "You can only learn so much from our archives." It says.

"I'm an open book." I grimaced, groaning from the pressure on my back.

"Why do your females fight?"

"Same reason your's would, to kick some Xeno ass." I snark, I feel another blow connect to me, this time to the back of my knee.

"Do not play with me, vermin." It threatens.

"Go fuck yourself." I answer.

"Attention, all UNSC Marine Corps unit." Says a line on my HUD, it must've been strong.

I feel my helmet lifted off of my head and thrown away, I sigh and continue staring at the dirt.

"Your allies will not be able to save you here." It says with another laugh. I just groan, coughing some blood on to the dirt in front of me.

"Where is your home world?" The creature insists.

"Go fuck yourself." I answer, bracing for another hit. But the bit never comes.

The elite is cut down by gunfire, I cry out as my allies approach.

I feel a shaky hand grab my armor and start to pull me back, causing me to groan in pain. "Shh, your safe." A comforting female voice tells me as I get dragged.

I feel a needle enter my arm, and I black out.

I wake up in a hospital bed, surrounded my titanium plating. "Welcome back to the land of the living." I hear a voice say.

_  
>Authors note<br>Ladies and gentlemen, what you have just read is the third instant of Sins, I hope you enjoyed, let's go over some things.

So, talking elite interrogation? Sounds familiar? All credit goes to casquis, I have read his Halo story The Life twice now and I'm still following it, I thought it would be an interesting thing to have, but I'll try to be more original in the future, so I apologize.  
>Also, Ryan gets to go back to his past once again to remember everything that happened, unless it's requested it's probably gonna be the last time I do that considering I don't picture Ryan being there for very long. Hope you all enjoyed.<p>

1: Thanks for your support, sorry that it's a little cheesy, still working out the kinks.

Teenage Mexican Master Chief: Thanks for your support, hope you keep reading!  
>Read on.<br>-Rsk


	5. Time to Rest ( Not )

Chapter three: The Rise of Third  
>Date: February 17th, 2531, UNSC Calendar<br>Private Ryan Shrake, UNSC Marine Corps  
>First Contact Wars<p>

I closed the door behind me after saying goodbye to Peyton, she was headed to a refugee camp, we had fallen back to the FOB and received our welcome from a battalion of Covvies who we engaged in a firefight for about an hour before finally driving them off, I still hadn't been hit for whatever reason. I looked around the room before falling to my knees and staring forward, my adrenaline was wearing off and I realized how many Marines we had just lost in third squad alone. I bury my face in my hands, causing my helmet to roll off my head and hit the ground in front of me, I didn't tighten the straps very often, allowing the slightest things to knock it off.

For the first time in what seemed like forever I started crying, imagining the fire fight inside and outside of the building, third squad alone had a eighty five percent casualty rate, replacements were probably on the way but it was still insane how the enemy manages to kill so many of us with such little force.

I hear a knock on the door, it creaks open as I turn around, Khan and Locke enter the room, Locke seemed beyond energized and Khan was quiet.

"Shrake! I got PFC!" Locke announced, his eyes sparkling with joy.

"Nice..." I answer, picking my helmet up and sitting down.

"What's up?" Khan asks, sitting next to me.

I look over at him, my HUD depolarizes, probably showing my red eyes from crying. "My squad got out with five guys." I answer.

"Well shit." Locke and Khan say almost simultaneously.

"Yeah, my first deployment, too." I say, bitterly.

"Not like you were leading." Khan said, staring at me, I picked up my head, meeting his stare. "I guess your right." I said, standing up.

"I'm gonna go on that makeshift wall the Army built out there, take out my anger on a Grunt passing by or something." I said, Khan nodded, Locke just grinned as I walked out.

I picked up my rifle by the door, attaching it to my back before putting my helmet back on, I blinked a couple of time, the visions of my dead comrades filling up my mental capacity, it was breaking me slowly. When I got to the wall I crouched down, setting my rifle up and checking my HUD for music of any sorts.

I sighed, ONI firewalls didn't like me poking around music files during a technical combat mission, so of course I decided to break in. Some Army goon had decided to upload a bunch of music from about four hundred years ago, I opened the file and turned on a song.

Ohh yeah...

Won't you follow me? Into the Jungle.

Ain't no god on these streets, into the jungle...

The song continued these lyrics, making me bob my head to the beat, a Grunt walked into sight and I shot him once the singer said the word 'Jungle', the blue blood from its chest sprayed the brick wall behind it, making some kind of graffiti that made some of the Marines around me laugh.

"Third squad, this is Jast, move to the command tent, I will be waiting for you." Corporal Jast said over the radio.

"Gotcha, Cake Walk." I say, hopping down from the wall, my song had ended so I just turned it off, not bothering with it anymore. I walked to the command tent, I was confused when I was greeted by a full squad of Marines, reinforcements had come quickly.

"Marines!" Jast calls out from the front of the line. "The UNSC has decided that instead of shooting Covvies, we are going to the other side of this rock to take out an Innie cell who was responsible for the recent airport bombings, they decided to take cover here under UNSC operation, so were gonna fuck'em up, oorah?" He yells.

"Oorah!" We yell back, my cry was quieter, my mind was racing at the possibilities at which cell it could be. We left the area via Pelican and a half hour later, we descended next to a cave system that had markings on the front of it. The place looked too familiar.

We took cover in front of the place and sat there, Jast wouldn't tell us why or order us to move so we sat around, aiming at the entrance.

An audible creaking noise filled the landscape as the giant metal doors open, a squad of Innies pouring out and engaging our squad, the fire fight should've been over in minutes, but of course the new guys were dragging us down, including me.

I aimed at one of them, I pulled the trigger as my gun sprayed wildly, bullets flying by my head didn't make it much easier to aim. I pop up again, firing a burst off into one of the Innie's neck, he fell over with a choking noise that made me shudder. More Innies poured out, I started to hear frantic cries of Marines as the enemy got off more shots.

Suddenly, something unexpected happened. The sound of metal slamming into the ground went up around us, six ODST's jump out of their SOEIV's, spraying SMG's and M247's at the enemy, quickly killing them off.

We push up with the ODST's, stacking up on the door before entering and looking around, the ODST's turned on the flashlights on their big-ass helmets, we turned the flashlights from our gun's on, sweeping the entrance with ease.

"On me." Jast orders, we move behind him, no contact or any sound as we near the main area. We stack up on the door that leads into the place I had called home for only a day before kicking it down, Jast falls over as an earth shattering crack fills the room.

Scar face stands there next to the bearded one, Scar holds a M6 while the bearded one aims a rifle at us, did I mention the squad of Innies behind them?

They opened up on us, I quickly hooked my hand under Jast's armor, he groans as I pull him back which all things considered is a good sign. Jast had a big dent in his paldron, blood pouring out of it. Ramirez quickly relieved me of dragging him, the Marines now starting to toss flash bangs into the room, my helmet's ear pieces close, helping my ears when the flash bangs go off, we enter the room and kill them all.

I looked around, the bodies were being stacked while Jast, with the help of Ramirez examined a set of dog tags hanging by a large blood stain on a concrete wall. I almost cry out when I realize where the stain was from.

"Fuck!" He yelled, snatching the dog tags and walking out of the large room. Our squad follows, we walk out of the cave as the memories begin to flow.

I groan as I wake up, I try moving my arms but they refuse, I realized I was surrounded my rubble and pieces of concrete. I hear yelling, and more gun fire as I sit there, tears start to flow from the pain.

After awhile the gunfire ceases, I was still unsure on how I was alive, but I could feel my torn t-shirt with the burns from the explosive on the back of my arms and legs.

A bright light came out of seemingly nowhere, as my eyes adjust I see an ODST staring down at me, feminine look to her armor and a helmet with a pink stripe on it. I see my reflection on her polarized visor, my face was caked in dirt and my forehead was cut, that was all I could see before she turned and walked away.

I sat there in disbelief until she came back with another ODST, a male who started to help her lift the rubble off of me. The pain was agonizing, like I had broken every home in my body, which I probably had. The girl helps me out, I cry out when she pulls me up, her visor depolarizes. She had blue eyes and brown hair, she stared at me with a worried look on her face, much like a mother would to her son.

"C'mon, were getting you some help." The other ODST grunts, they both help me out of the destroyed building. I'm placed in an ambulance and rushed off to a hospital where I am fully treated, comfortable for once, until the ONI spook came.

"Hello." He says, sitting down, just me and him in my room.

I stare at him, not saying anything.

"I was watching some of the police dashboard cameras, and I was wondering, what were you doing in that club?" He asks me, a good question.

"I don't know." I answer.

"Kid, don't lie to me, I saw you in that window with your pistol, your one of the attackers." He says, opening a file and thumbing through it.

"I didn't know they were planning this." I answer, staring him in the eyes.

"I'm sure, your boss escaped before setting off that bomb to clean up the evidence, but he's got a broken link, now doesn't he?" The man asked, he reminded me of a rat, scrawny and his face seemed to just drill into you, like he could steal everything from you in a second.

"I guess so." I answer him.

"Not very talkative? That's OK, we have torture tables for that." He tells me, his eyes show me he was being deathly serious.

"I just wanted to let you know how long you are going to be in jail." He says.

"How long?" I ask him defiantly, but in reality I was scared.

"Two years, then you will be interrogated to see if we need to move you to high security and keep you there forever." He answers.

"Don't I get a trial?" I ask.

"Yes, of course, and if your family pays bail then I guess nothing will happen other than a reeducation class and probation." He says, sighing in distaste.

I nod, I knew my dad would probably pay it... Right?

We were loading back on to the Pelican, I couldn't stop looking at the cave system we were about to blow sky high.

Oh well.

We took off before the massive explosion shook the earth, headed back to base with everyone still intact. The Pelican shook violently as a pretty display of different colored plasma launched all around us, some of the deadly flak hitting the bird.

"Hang the fuck on!" The pilot screams from the cockpit, I heard the sound of glass breaking, I looked over at the cockpit from where I was sitting, the pilot was slumped over in her chair while her co pilot was freaking out.

"Renee!" He yelled, unhooking himself as the bird starts to go into a free fall to the ground. He shakes the pilot, but the falling velocity of the bird took him off his feet, the broken windshield sucking him out. His screams die out as the bird continues towards the ground.

"Marines! Strap in if you-." Everything went black.

I groaned, a good indication I was still alive. My vision slowly blurs as I start to sit up, but I am immediately halted by my spine exploding in pain, the crash must've broken some bones and hurt my back because of the amount of pain that was flowing through my system. I try sitting up again, this time my body allows it. I was lucky to be alive, my seat belt was severed and there was blood all around me, but no Marines. I look up and see my MA5B where I left it, attached to the wall, I grab it and pull back the bolt, walking out of the Pelican.

I hold my hand up to my eyes as the sun blinds me, when my eyes refocus I noticed the ground in front of me was stained in the blood of Marines and Covvies. More Marines were laying dead, about four, while the enemy had only taken two casualties. I sigh, trying to find the closest radio line for my HUD to connect to.

My radio connects, and is immediately filled with static, I was on my own again. "Fucking hell I'd better get promoted for this." I mumble to myself, jogging into the field in front of me.

I hear a low growl and I hit the dirt, flipping around to aim at the source. All of a sudden, I'm surrounded, elites with Spec ops armor and energy swords materialize around me, looking blood thirsty and pissed off. One of them growls something and the circle starts to close around me, I flip my gun around in a circle, watching them get closer. Another growl, and the elites stop except for one who dashes forward, slashing my gun in half. "Fuck!" I yell, falling backwards.

I hear a nasty gurgling sound, it seemed like they were all laughing, they all disappeared except for the one that had attacked me. "Pitiful." It spits, towering over me.

"Not so intimidating yourself." I reply, but in reality I was freaking out, this thing was talking to me like a human would.

It laughs and kicks me in the ribs, I cry out as a small crack comes from me. "Your nothing." It answers.

"Then why keep me alive, squid?" I ask weakly, holding my ribs.

"Curiosity." It answers, literally sitting down next to me, it's hand pressed against my back to keep me from standing. "You can only learn so much from our archives." It says.

"I'm an open book." I grimaced, groaning from the pressure on my back.

"Why do your females fight?"

"Same reason your's would, to kick some Xeno ass." I snark, I feel another blow connect to me, this time to the back of my knee.

"Do not play with me, vermin." It threatens.

"Go fuck yourself." I answer.

"Attention, all UNSC Marine Corps unit." Says a line on my HUD, it must've been strong.

I feel my helmet lifted off of my head and thrown away, I sigh and continue staring at the dirt.

"Your allies will not be able to save you here." It says with another laugh. I just groan, coughing some blood on to the dirt in front of me.

"Where is your home world?" The creature insists.

"Go fuck yourself." I answer, bracing for another hit. But the bit never comes.

The elite is cut down by gunfire, I cry out as my allies approach.

I feel a shaky hand grab my armor and start to pull me back, causing me to groan in pain. "Shh, your safe." A comforting female voice tells me as I get dragged.

I feel a needle enter my arm, and I black out.

I wake up in a hospital bed, surrounded my titanium plating. "Welcome back to the land of the living." I hear a voice say.

_  
>Authors note<br>Ladies and gentlemen, what you have just read is the third instant of Sins, I hope you enjoyed, let's go over some things.

So, talking elite interrogation? Sounds familiar? All credit goes to casquis, I have read his Halo story The Life twice now and I'm still following it, I thought it would be an interesting thing to have, but I'll try to be more original in the future, so I apologize.  
>Also, Ryan gets to go back to his past once again to remember everything that happened, unless it's requested it's probably gonna be the last time I do that considering I don't picture Ryan being there for very long. Hope you all enjoyed.<p>

1: Thanks for your support, sorry that it's a little cheesy, still working out the kinks.

Teenage Mexican Master Chief: Thanks for your support, hope you keep reading!  
>Read on.<br>-Rsk


	6. Evacuation Sucks

Chapter five: Evacuation sucks  
>February 20th, 2531 UNSC Calendar<br>Rullins II

We arrived at the fortified space port, tired as all hell, and beaten to utter shit a total of thirty Marines were dead from this campaign, and that was just our battalion, I'm sure everyone suffered more casualties, not even to mention the civilians.

Space craft were getting ready to take off when Khan an I walked past the loading area, helmets in our hands, headed for the barracks that had been set up by the wounded who were still able to do something. We stepped inside and closed the door, I collapse on to one of the cots, groaning. I rub my bad shoulder, the bandage still tightly wrapped around the wound.

I hear a pop, I look over at Khan, he starts drinking from the bottle of Scotch that he holds.

"Fucker, not wanting to share." I say, he looks over at me and screws the cap back on, tossing it to me.

I drink the rest of the bottle, Khan gives me a stare of death as I laugh at him, I stand, making sure not to knock my DMR off of the bed

"You fucker." He says, staring at the empty bottle.

"What? I was thirsty." I reply with a laugh.

"You fucker." He repeats, a smile starting to grow on his face.

We both break out laughing, I hear a clink as something falls out of Khan's pocket, the dog tags hit the floor, bounce once before settling, Khan and I stop laughing.

ID: 76629

UNSC Marine Corps

Private First Class Austin Locke, KIA.

The words on the dog tags haunted us on the way back to the space port, we both hang our heads in remembrance of our late friend. I drop the scotch bottle on to the floor, picking up my DMR rifle. I take it apart like I was taught in basic, I start cleaning it, wanting it to be working for the next time I fire it, which would be real soon at the rate things were going.

Three men step into the barrack, chuckling at a joke one had told them, they all wore Marine corps uniforms, Private tags on their shoulders. Their names on their uniforms marked them as J. Ramirez. D. Figel and R. Simmons, Simmons was tall, black skin and broad shoulders. Figel was about my height, my skin tone but black hair instead of my light brown, Ramirez had fair skin but wasn't black like Simmons, like the old Mexican population originally on Earth.

"Hello." Khan says, they look at us, they looked fresh, as of they had just gotten here.

"What ship are you boys from?" I ask them, one of them starts to speak but is cut off by the tall black man in their group.

"The Firefly." He answers, the other two nod, then the alarm went off.

But the alarm wasn't the normal operation alarm, it was one of those danger alarms that warned you when something really had was happening.

"Attention all civilians, please, in a orderly fashion, go to your designated evacuation craft." A voice over the income says.

I stand, getting my armor on and picking up my DMR, looking around at everyone else. By the time I was dressed, so were they, we jogged out of the barracks, civilians were doing the opposite of calmly going to their ships, but I soon found out why.

A green bolt flew past me, knocking a woman off of her feet, the bolt flies through her and hits the ground before her blood starts to flow. The area erupts in screams, this being one of three space ports, there weren't many civilians, but enough to trample me given the occasion.

Another carbine bolt fires, more follow before we get on cover, waiting for the civilians to go past us. I hear a cry for help, a little boy pulls on his fathers arm, trying to drag his corpse away from the plasma fire.

"Fuck!" Simmons yells. "Cover me!" He runs out of cover, towards the little boy.

"Get the hell back here!" I call out, just as a purple beam tears through his skull, sending him tumbling in front of the boy. The boy cries out again, he couldn't have been more than twelve, still hoping his planet wasn't falling apart.

The kid shakes Simmons, blood leaks from the head wound, but the child seems persistent. He looks around the body and finds his Magnum, aiming it at something I couldn't see before taking a plasma bolt to his little chest, killing him instantly.

Ramirez cries out, starting towards the body before Figel stops him.

"He's dead, John." He says darkly, Ramirez shakes as he slides down the wall, his head in his hands.

"I didn't sign up to see my friend die, Dan." He says, choking out.

"Yes you did, we all did." Khan answers.

"What the fuck would you know? You still got your friend." He says, motioning towards me, Figel looks hurt for a second, but manages to keep straight.

"Private First Class Austin Locke, KIA from Pelican crash, the only one that died." Khan says, Khan and I switch places on the wall so he can see better.

Ramirez quiets, we flip around the corner, guns up and ready. A patrol of Grunts clambers over the fortification loaded with dead humans, we open fire on them and dispatch them with relative ease.

Banshees soar overhead, going for one of the evacuation crafts before promptly being scared off by a Scythe AA turret, which made itself a large target for any genocidal alien in the area. We take cover next to the fortification, climbing up on it and looking out into the trees where several large squads of aliens sit, waiting.

Ramirez hits the deck as a plasma round flies near his head. The aliens spring up as we hop off the wall, sprinting for the middle of the camp where the Marines have organized a force. Second platoon and third squad were the only troops available for defense of this particular space port, while the rest of the battalion was trying to find civilians and Covvies still in the area.

Out of seemingly nowhere a glob of green plasma knocks me off my feet, a civilian warthog explodes, causing several other vehicles to blow up, sending shrapnel and super heated particles everywhere. Our small squad hits the ground as dirt rains all around us, I look around, trying to see through the fog.

The fog clears and the aliens who has just been in front of our horizontal line were gone, only two remained. The two aliens, an elite in general armor and a brute in the fanciest headdress I had ever seen, both seem very high ranking, the brute unhooks a giant gravity hammer from its back, then pulling a small plasma pistol from its side, holding each with one hand. The elite unhooks two energy swords from its belt, activating them. They stare at us and start walking in our direction, I go into a crouch and I fire a round at the brute, a golden energy flickers around the brute as my bullet impacts it's chest, which seems to break the trance. Figel and Ramirez are first to react, both unhooking flash bangs from their armor and throwing them. Figel's flash fell short but Ramirez's detonated straight into the elite's face, making the brute roar.

"These fuckers are the best of friends, aren't they?" Khan asks as the brute leaps towards us.

"Kind've like us." I admit, watching the ape.

"But not as badass." Khan confirms, I laugh and we roll out of the way as the brute slams the hammer into the pavement, lifting me off of the ground as I roll and then throwing me back on to the cracked concrete.

"Fuck'em!" Figel yells as he empties his MA5B clip into the brute's back, the giant ape turns and fires a blob of plasma into Figel's chest, knocking him over and causing him to scream in pain. I fire three more rounds into the brute's back, causing it to turn on me. The brute leaps forward again, never failing to surprise me. A swing that would've taken off my head was cut short by sustained fire to the brute's back from Figel, who was now leaning against a building. The brute roars in anger, the golden flicker disappearing. I scramble back, still on the ground as I pull my magnum from its place at my side, aiming at the brutes head.

"Bang bang, motherfucker." I say as I pull the trigger, sending it's brain matter flying out of the back of its head. I cry out in victory, my head going back down to the concrete, making me look up at the sky.

"Ramirez!" I hear Figel cry.

Right, forgot about the elite.

I sit up and I look over at Ramirez, who was in an interesting predicament, he jumps back as the elite slashes at him, instead hitting the air and roaring at the annoyance of the situation. Ramirez opens up with his MA5B, the gun clicks empty before the elite slashes it into two pieces. Ramirez pulls out his magnum, still backing up, the elite jumps forward, and knocks the pistol from his hand before he can escape. The Marine pulls his combat knife from it's magnetic holster at his belt, holding it up. I can only watch as the elite lunges forward, slashing Ramirez's arm clean off. Before the young Marine can react, the elite is behind him, holding one energy sword at his back and one at his throat.

"Away." It growls, which triggers the soldier in us all. We all aim our guns at the alien, I hear Ramirez cry out as the elite starts to walk with him, the wound where his arm had once been was partially cauterized, but there was still blood leaking out.

"Let him go!" Figel yells at the massive alien.

I see movement as Ramirez lashes against the elite. We all open up on the general, it throws Ramirez forward, not having time to kill him. The general jumps up on to the roof of a building and disappears. A carbine round flies past me as I run towards Ramirez. He lays on the ground, his eyes streaming with tears, Figel drags him into cover, and I follow as the rest of the Covenant appears from seemingly nowhere.

"This is UNSC Frozen Luck to any units in Prefect battle group, does anybody copy, over?" I hear in my helmet.

"This is Private Shrake to Frozen Luck, I copy! Were losing Ghale refugee camp, a lot of covvies here! Immediate request for support, any support!" I yell, flipping around the corner and emptying my magazine into an elite, ending its life.

"I know this is a bad time, but did anybody else think its weird that a higher rank brute and a higher rank elite were fighting together?" Khan yells, firing at the enemy.

"No fucking clue!" I yell, looking away as Ramirez screams from the bio foam on his arm, or what was left of it.

"This is Frozen Luck, hit the deck boys, salvo inbound." I hear through my helmet.

The entire enemy line gets riddled with shrapnel as the rounds explode, decimating the entirety of the enemy force, except for one purple structure, a glowing antenna remains, we stare at it, the structure sits behind their lines, which could only mean one thing.

"Frozen Luck, this is Shrake again, I think the enemy requested reinforcements using some type of antenna, unsure of what to do next." I say into my radio.

"Right, we have contacted the rest of your battalion, ETA to your current position is fifteen mikes via Pelican, so you'll have to disable it." The crewman replies cheerfully.

"Fuck, Shrake out." I answer, cutting the channel.

"Well, let's go disable the beacon thingie." Khan says cheerfully, we leave Figel with Ramirez as we jog towards the structure, the four legs that support it, a small box sticks out of the main body, I open it to reveal non complex wiring, still complex enough to make me scratch my head in wonder.

"Well, time for the old fashion way." I say as I unholster my magnum, firing four shots into the wiring. The wires ignite, sending sparks flying into my face, making my face explode in pain, I scream as I fall over, Khan immediately kneeling down to help.

The beacon stops glowing.

_  
>Authors note<p>

Well hello, I'm happy to announce that I lied, this is not the final battle on this planet, but it is for Private Shrake. Wait what? Well, if you check out the new description of this story, I thought it would be cool to revolve around multiple main characters in different branches, which is going to be fun to write, and hopefully to read.

Hope you enjoyed, review like and favorite, show this to your friend, sister, mother, and your friends sister, once again I hope you enjoyed.  
>Read on ladies and gentlemen.<br>-Rsk


	7. Metal Coffins

Chapter VI: Metal Coffins

Rullins II, Outer colonies  
>February 20th, 2531 UNSC Calender<br>Sergeant Anson Hawkins  
>ODST Jaguar platoon, squad two<p>

I sigh inwardly, knowing this mission was not going to end well. Taylor and Gunny were sitting next to me, helmets off, despite being in a combat mission, talking about their stupid relationship, talking like nothing has happened. I always have my ODST helmet on, polarized at all times, only few have seen my face, which sounds fucking stupid but only special people should be able to see what war has done to me.

"Taylor, your awesome." Gunny says quietly, she laughs and leans up against him closing her eyes.

I stand up, hoisting my M247L on to my shoulder and walking out.

"Hawkins! Where ya goin'!?" Gunny asks. I hold my middle finger up in his direction, I honestly hope it sent the right message.

"Fucking.. Taylor I'll-" I shut the door to the large house behind me, I look around at the gray sky, I stand on the roof of the gigantic house we had taken cover in while the Covenant steamrolled the planet, word was that the Marines were having trouble in Ghale, but there was help, so I focused on my problems.

With that, the door behind me slides open, and Wolfe, or Gunny walks out and storms towards me, his helmet hooked under his arm. I set up my M247L on the side of the roof, aiming down at the empty street.

"Hawkins, whatsup?" Gunny asks me, crouching down next to me.

"You know I have a problem with your stupid relationship, right?" I ask him, he looks taken aback for a second before collecting himself.

"I do what I please, Brittany is an amazing girl." He answers firmly. "So was Haley." He adds.

I clench my fists, my finger a centimeter from the trigger. "I thought we agreed not to talk about Haley." I say as calmly as I can.

"Right, sorry Anson, I understand that this op has hit you pretty hard." He says.

_  
>Two hours earlier<br>On-board UNSC _Make My Day_

I smile at her, beautiful as always, black hair and seemingly fragile skin, but she was tough, tough enough to join the ODST's.

"You know we have an op soon, right?" She asks, her voice calming and quiet as she leans against me.

"Yeah." I say, wrapping my arm around her, one of the few times on the _Make My Day,_ I had taken my full armor off, Haley was special.

My helmet starts a transmission in the corner of the room where I had placed it carefully next to the rest of my battle armor, as I had for three years of service against the Covenant. "Anson get your fucking helmet on." I hear Gunny say, I walk over and I pull my armor on before locking my helmet to the chest piece.

"Finally, time to get ready for drop." Gunny tells me.

"Got it, I'm Oscar Mike." I say, professionally.

"Haley..." I start, taking off my helmet. Without a word she stands walking over to me and kissing me, warmth spreading from my chest to all around my body.

"Let's go." She says, walking over to get her armor on, I walk out and I grab my M247L from where it was sitting next to the door, walking out towards the drop bay. The place was small for a platoon of ODST's to drop in, with barely enough odd to fit all of us it was a surprise that they could for us and ammunition boxes into the room.

When I walk in, the first thing I do is start to fill up my rucksack with essentials, ammo, food, and water for the metal water bottle inside. The only food was the MRE's the UNSC passed as good food and the shitty energy bars that did their job, but were shitty.

"Officer on deck!" Someone calls out, we all stop what were doing and snap to attention.

"ODST's!" Second Lieutenant Parker yells we all stare at him, most of us with depolarized helmets on, but I had mine polarized, it became habit the second I stepped on to the _Make My Day_.

"When we jumped into this system, we were told we would be security for the civilian evacuation crafts, but now that another Covenant fleet has jumped into this system, so we will be dropping for bit and run strikes and killing the sons of bitches who are giving our Marines hell." Parker says to us, several Oorah's went up around the room.

"Your squad leader's will brief you on your way to the surface." The lieutenant explains.

We all line up in front of the man, squad two has one more member than the rest of the platoon, we had two snipers, Haley and Taylor, two Auto riflemen, Knight and myself, along with three CQB's, Ghost, Anderson, and Vulture, and of course our squad leader, Wolfe, or Gunny as I called him, particularly because it pisses him off when I call him that.

"ODST's! To your pods!" The lieutenant yells, we all give our best cheer as we run towards our designated pods, I place my M247L next to me in the weapon holder, my squad's faces pop up on my HUD, everyone now starting to polarize their visors.

"How do we go?!" Wolfe yells.

"Feet first Gunnery Sergeant!" We all scream.

"Fuck yes, pods ready for drop." He says.

I feel my stomach lurch as we leave the artificial gravity of the ship, already starting towards the planet's surface.

"Squad two, our objective is a wealthy neighborhood on the surface, HIGHCOM wants us to set up a nice little outpost there to allow recon and small scale raids on the enemy supply lines." Gunny says, I see several ODST's nod.

"Adjust your course and activate thrusters." Gunny says, I do what he says, the pod starting to overheat from the atmosphere.

"Oh god..." I hear in the radio.

That can't be good...

"Fuck! Pod malfunction... Oh god... Thrusters and drag chute broken." Anderson starts to panic, I see his head frantically looking around.

"Shit, Anderson, there's nothing we can-" Wolfe starts, but is cut off by Anderson.

"Go fuck yourself!" He screams, his pod hurdling towards the ground, the camera image of him is cut off when the pod hits the ground.

"Drag chutes." Wolfe says firmly, Anderson's death and last words obviously bothering him.

We plummet towards the ground, and our objective, the place stuck out, gigantic houses with built in security systems and AI's in each of them, these guys were wealthy before they had to abandon ship. That's why I smiled to myself when I crashed straight through one of the large houses, stopping on the bottom floor. I tap a button on my pod, the hatch flies off and I step out, grabbing my M247L and my rucksack.

"Regroup on beacon." Wolfe says calmly, I walk towards the entrance, opening the door and walking out, looking around with my large AR. I jog to the beacon where everyone else was meeting.

"Right, me, Taylor, and Hawkins are in this building, the rest of you are to spread out amongst these buildings while we wait for orders." Gunny tells us, I walk upstairs and I sit on the balcony, I place my M247L next to me, I pull out my magnum, I start to play with the slide while Gunny and Taylor come up here, Gunny had his arm around her. They sit down next to me, talking quietly, I pick up my AR and I walk away from them, leaning against a wall and closing my eyes until a private channel opens on my HUD.

"How're you holding up?" Haley asks through the channel, I smile despite myself, glad to have someone who cares.

"Pretty good, yourself?" I ask.

She sighs. "Ghost and Knight are talking about Anderson."

"Huh, Wolfe and Taylor are about to make out over here." I tell her, she laughs.

An explosion erupts in the distance, making us both go silent.

"Don't die." I tell her, she laughs.

"You'll die before I do, hun." She says, I grin as the channel shuts down.

"This is Wolfe, status report." Gunny says on comm.

"This is Vulture, I'm alone on building two, I see banshee fliers and-." A large explosion rips through the building in front of me, a banshee flies through the smoke.

"Vulture!" Wolfe screams through the radio, his vitals had flatlined, no body to recover, not even a pair of dog tags.

I hear a sniper shot, Haley was firing the SRS she was given, which meant there were high priorities in the area. I grab my AR and I set up, aiming down the street, two small patrols of elites and grunts approach, they were obviously doing something important to have banshees flying around for them.

One of the squids head explodes with a vapor trail, I smile and open up on the grunts, I hear Gunny open up with his SMG, the rounds spraying wildly which made a nice suppressive factor. I see Ghost run out of the house she was in, only to be cut down by a blue beam, Knight runs out and drags the body inside, prompting another beam shot only inches away. I see him grab her tags and run back inside.

Another vapor trail, Taylor was firing now at the sniper, she smiles in her depolarized visor, obviously a hit.

"Werner, Knight, get the fuck over here!" Wolfe shouts over comm, my eyes widen and I squeeze the trigger for a solid ten seconds while they run across the street, Knight is hit by a plasma bolt, he starts dragging himself towards the house when an eager minor jumps on top of him and stabs him with an energy sword. Haley point blanks the elite with a .50 caliber sniper rifle, making me grin.

My grin is cut short.

Haley is lit up by plasma, she runs inside but not before a beam cuts straight through her leg, causing her to trip into the house. I run downstairs, grabbing her breastplate and dragging her backwards, aiming my gun at the door as I did, a trail of blood leaking from her leg.

"Haley, stay with me, remember, I die first, that's what you said." I beg, leaning her against a wall and pulling out bio foam. A glowing grenade flies into the room, I protect Haley with my body, the heat wearing the back of my armor.

"Go." She whispers, looking at me.

"I can't do that." I tell her, tears starting to stream down my face as I depolarize my visor. A pool of blood was forming around her, she flatlined.

"No..." I mutter, taking her dog tags and rifle, dashing upstairs and slamming the door shut, aiming my AR at it, my visor polarizes but that didn't seem to hide the fact I was crying.

"Anson, get it together." Wolfe tells me, slapping my visor, I nod, choking out. I open the door, aiming down the stairs at an elite major having trouble with the stairs, I plaster him against the wall, things quiet down as the Covenant forces fall back temporarily. I close the door again, looking over at Wolfe and Taylor.

"That was close." He mutters to her.

"You guys are going to make me sick." I quietly complain.

Wolfe just shrugs, I sigh and I close my eyes again.

_

"Go fuck yourself Wolfe." I spit at him. "Go break protocol with Taylor, don't talk to me about her." I tell him, aiming down my sight.

Wolfe smacks me upside the head. "I need you at full psych, bro." Wolfe says, standing up and walking downstairs to get Taylor.

A single elite walks down the street, an energy sword in one hand and a plasma rifle in the other, it was huge. I got down into cover so that it didn't see me, I continue eating my shitty UNSC energy bar, once I finish I put my helmet back on, I go prone and crawl to the door, it slides open and I roll in, it closes behind me. I stand up and jog downstairs, the elite kicks down the door downstairs.

Wolfe and Taylor looked surprised to see a giant elite about to kill them, I hit it like a train, which I could've been considering my height weight and the fact I was wearing titanium armor. I press the barrel of my AR to its chin, compressing the trigger, making my ears ring even with my helmet blocking out some of the sound. I stop holding it down when the elite's face is mush, it falls over.

We run upstairs, the sun starts to set.

"Hawkins, first watch." Wolfe says, walking into a bed room with Taylor. I hold up my middle finger as they close the door.

I sit on the roof with a yawn, I turn on some music in my helmet, an appropriate song from about four hundred years ago. The song was called No Rest for the Wicked, I sit there and I listen to it as the landscape goes darker. Around an hour later I stand up and I walk into Wolfe's room, he had his arms wrapped around Taylor and was snoring, he had no helmet on so I walk over and I picked up his helmet, I tapped his head with it and then I step back, Wolfe jumps out of the bed and almost tackles me but instead he runs straight into a titanium wall.

"Your watch." I tell him, putting his helmet down and walking out, finding a cozy bed, which meant any bed considering I kept everything on and couldn't actually feel the material. I fall asleep within seconds.

I wake up to the sound of footsteps in front of me, I feel something pressed against my helmet, a plasma rifle. I growl at the minor as it prods me with the rifle.

"Fucker, I was sleeping." I mutter, the elite laughs, but is cut short by a .50 cal bullet splattering its brains through the wall.

"Taylor you fucking bitch you couldn't of done that sooner?!" I yell through my helmet. "Fuck off." Is her response, also some very colorful language from Wolfe. I grab my AR and my rucksack, I walk to the balcony and I wave at Taylor who was now across the road, firing round after round from her SKS. I set up my AR again, looking for targets. A squad of grunts meets its end before it could react to my M247L spitting out rounds.

I hear a screeching sound and I hit the deck, the house I am in erupts in a green fireball, which luckily doesn't affect the balcony in which I was currently holding myself as an armadillo would when a giant fucking animal tries to kill it.

"Banshee!" Taylor cries out.

"No fuckin' shit!" I yell out, depressing my AR's trigger as I aim at the Banshee.

Rounds ping off its purple hull for thirty seconds straight before the pilot is hit by the 7.62mm bullets, killing the alien inside and sending it tumbling down to enemy lines.

Suddenly my helmet erupts with noise. "The jammer is down!" Someone cries out. I breathe a sigh of relief as rapid calls for reinforcements went up from Wolfe, our situation desperate enough to warrant reinforcements was true, but most ODST's are too proud to request reinforcements which is why command sent us a slap across the face from heaven.

Four pods landed around our building, four giants stepped out of them, wielding enough weapons to supply a small militia, Spartan II's

They all carried the standard MA5B rifle with a magnum, one of them, wearing blue armor had two SMG's attached to it's belt, an orange one was carrying a fucking SPANKR on it's back like it was nothing and a machete at it's side. The one I assumed to be a sniper who was wearing black armor had a BR55 and an SKS strapped across it's back, and the last one who was the squad leader was wearing yellow armor and had two short shotguns strapped across its chest and a large one across it's back.

"Fuck." I hear Wolfe mutter, the Covvies were moving in fast, but Spartans were a fairy tale, a myth spread by the UNSC to strike fear into the Innies, apparently they were real because in a span on thirty seconds the enemy chain of command was dead and the enlisted were running from the bullets chasing them.

My helmet comm explodes with voices again, but one stood out to me. "Fucking hell! The beacon is down but so is Shrake, we need fucking- Oh shit." The comm cuts off again as a large purple ship appears over the city, from the looks, a CCS Battlecruiser, the bottom of it opens as it lands, unloading troops quickly and cleanly before closing it's bottom half and lifting again. The ship flies another mile across the city before it's bottom half opens again, a huge beam erupts as it cuts through the landscape. That's when two streaks of light knock it out of the sky, sending it plummeting on a crash course for the city.

When the ship explodes, the shockwave from the city in the distance breaks the windows of the houses here. Now that's badass. Other than the fact it probably killed a lot of people, of course.

"Shit, we need an aircraft, get us to a location with more strategic value and more fighting." Wolfe says over comm, I sigh, back into the suck again.

A Pelican lands, the back opens and a squad of Marines hop out, immediately running for cover as we step into the bird. The Spartan in charge greets their squad leader, who was still trying to register the fact a giant ass man in full MJOLNIR armor was standing over him.

The bird lifts off and immediately launches forward, zipping off to another place to attack of defend, same drill as always.

"Hawkins, status?" Wolfe asks quietly, staring at my dark helmet through his depolarized visor.

"Doing just fine, Gunny." I tell him, I grin when he scowls at the nickname he hated so much.

"Alright, both of you, no fuck ups this time." Wolfe says, the bird starting to slow and start its descent.

The back opens and all three of us jog out, guns raised and fingers on the triggers, looking for the slightest movement. In front of us stood a small complex with polycrete walls around it, MA37 rifles rest on the wall, the soldiers behind the rifles unseen to the naked eye.

We jog into the facility, where we are immediately greeted by the commander there, wearing old armor and carrying a MA37, an Army dog.

"Glad to see you made it." He says, eyeing us. "Troops needed a morale boost." He admits, my HUD marks him as Second Lieutenant Godfrey, he wears the standard Army uniform along with a whole lot of ammunition covering every pouch available, probably weighing over sixty kilos considering advances in modern technology.

Wolfe salutes, the Lieutenant's eyes to wide in fear as a blue beam cuts straight through him.

"The fuck, Wolfe?!" I yell at him, his helmet polarizes as he drops the salute, another beam flies by him as he turns to fire at the sniper

He fires several shots towards the point of where the beam originated from, cursing all the while.

"Fucking A." He mutters, probably still thinking about the Lieutenant he just killed.

I turn and jog to the wall, setting up my M247L on the side and depressing the trigger, spitting rounds into the tropical forest around us until my bullets are stopped by air.

"Spec ops!" Someone yells, all of the guns on the wall open up, looking for unseen targets, the soldier next to me is lifted up, a large spike sticking through his gut, causing his inner organs to spill out on to the spike impaling him.

The brute throws the soldier off of his bayonet and turns to me, the lust for blood clear in his eyes. I swing my gun towards him and manage to get off a couple of shots before he fucking kicks me off of the wall, making me land hard on the dirt.

"Fucking ape!" I yell, standing up and unhooking my knife from its place on my side. The brute accepts the challenge and lunges forward, I sidestep and slash his arm, it roars in pain and turns to me again.

"Motherfucker just doesn't want to die." I mutter, throwing the knife straight at him, the blade sinks into it's forehead and causes it to collapse, blood leaking from its wounds.

I pick my gun back up and I look over at the body in disgust. I look away and I gun down a curious Jackal who had wanted to try and sneak up on me.

"Hawkins, left flank." Wolfe tells me over the radio, I jog over to the designated location, a Hunter pair was going head to head with ten Army guys, one of the Hunter's bat's one of the heavy figures aside with its shield, sending the poor man into a back breaking hit into the polycrete wall behind him. Pure adrenaline forced me forward, spraying my AR straight at one of the Hunter's. My feet seemed to have a mind of their own as I sprinted towards one of them, unhook a frag grenade and sticking it straight into the orange chink in the Hunter's armor. I sprint past it as it charges it's gun to fire at me, the Hunter aims and explodes, sending armor and orange worms everywhere.

That's when an ear piercing cry came out of the other beast as it charges me, ramming straight into me with it's shield and sending me flying a good five feet back, making me roll in the dirt and scramble to get up.

The men around me then decide not to be so useless and open fire on the Hunter, the nine weapons firing at the Hunter dispatched of it quickly enough after a couple of reloads.

The Army men disperse and run back to defensive positions, opening up on the Covenant force's once again. The tell tale screams of the Banshee fliers fills the air as four of them, assembled into a wedge formation, start firing their fuel rod cannons at the base, sending soldier's and blood flying all around.

I climb on to the walls again, I fire about two shots before my AR clicks empty, I pull the box of ammunition out of the bottom and I feed my weapon more bullets, and a box to hold them together. I pull back the receiver before firing again, spitting hot fire towards the wall of grunt's and low ranking elite's. I see a small capsule fly towards the enemy line, it catches fire and hits their line, lighting up the enemy on the front line, the perfectly planned trap.

"Did anyone fucking see that?" A soldier yells, his hand up in the air.

"Get your fucking hand down!" I hear someone yell, but it was too late for that soldier, a pink barrage of needle's flies his way, four of them hitting down his arm.

I turn away as his arm explodes with micro shrapnel. I depress the trigger even more as the Covenant forces grow thicker, the sun starts to set as dark takes over the land of Rullins II.

"Hawkins, I need you to do me a huge favor." Wolfe says over the com, helmet flashlights bleed the dark as we look for the Covenant forces, they had stopped charging once the night set in.

"What do you need?" I ask him, keeping close watch.

"I need you to throw an IR strobe at the biggest cluster of enemies you can see." Wolfe tells me.

"Alright, one problem I can't see them." I tell him.

"Oh, I know, just get ready." He says, the sound of a projectile being launched from a launcher evident through the silent night.

The grounds in front of me lights up red, the Army personnel around me open fire at any Covenant alien they could see, I look around before throwing a small grenade shaped charge towards the enemy, the second it hits the ground, it absorbs itself into the ground. The sound of rocket's and machine gun's fill the air as two Falcon gunships open up on the area around the strobe, I watch in amazement as artillery and the gunship hellfire blows apart the enemy forces, all around the military base.

The red light starts to die as the Army boys cheer their asses off and the remainder of the Covenant retreats into the jungle.

_  
>Authors note ( P. S I have no idea how to divide the page properly for the authors note )<p>

Holy mother of Guadeloupe, it's been awhile since I uploaded but I hope this chapter was worth it, I didn't want to focus an entire fanfiction on one character so I have decided to make an ODST, and Marine which are already written about and an Army Ranger, Longsword/ Shortsword pilot, and a member of the Army Airborne, all in the Prefect battle group.

Anyway, follow this story and review if you want anymore characters, if you suggest a Spartan, do NOT expect many chapter's revolving around that character considering how early this story is in the Halo universe.  
>I will be now uploading every Wednesday, sorry this was late, I have been writing more chapters after this one in case I get behind again so that way I can still upload.<p>

Read on  
>-Rsk<p> 


	8. Longsword on Shortstreet

Chapter VII: Longsword on Short street

Rullins II, Outer Colonies  
>February 20th, 2531 UNSC Calender<br>Chief Warrant Officer Amanda Kile  
>160th SOAR Longsword detachment<p>

I nervously pace the hangar bay deck, I look over at my Longsword, able to go faster than most UNSC single cockpit ships, and able to drop bombs at five times the speed of sound.

But yet here I was pacing around and worrying over the stupidest thing's. It was almost impossible to hear anything in the hangar most days, but today the hangar of the _Die Like Heretic's_ was almost completely empty, although it was only a small frigate compared to our flagship the Prefect, we still had over twenty Longsword's and even more Pelican and Shortsword aircraft. I had my flight suit and helmet on, I knew today was not going to be fun.

Today me and my co pilot, Warrant Officer first class Oryan were going to be engaging Seraphs in the vacuum of space to ensure safe civilian evacuation. Why was this FUBAR? Well because in space you can eject all you want but you'll just die slower, at least I can eject planet side.

"All pilots to their stations." The intercom blares, I jog over to my Longsword and I climb in, Oryan was already in his seat.

"Whatsup, gorgeous?" He asks me with a small grin from under his helmet.

"Your funny, but you'll have to try harder." I tell him, buckling in.

"C'mon give me some credit." He complains, checking the system's of our aircraft.

"I'll give you credit when you get fuckin' ace status." I tell him, placing my hands on the joystick of the craft.

"This is Stinger 2-1, requesting permission for takeoff." Oryan says into his radio.

"Stinger 2-1, you are green to go." Flight control tells us.

I lift us off, flying straight out of the hangar and into space. A waypoint set on my HUD and I adjusted my craft to get to the area I was supposed to be at.

"Stinger 1-1 signing in."

"Stinger 1-2 signing in."

"Stinger 2-1 signing in."

"Stinger 2-2, ready to kick some ass."

I roll my eyes at the last comment but it was almost tradition now.

"All Stinger elements, today we will be engaging enemy Seraph craft while the _Prefect_ battle group attempts to engage the enemy cruiser's around us." 1-1 says in comm, I nod my head even though I know that nobody but Oryan could see me.

"Stinger elements, form wedge and power up weapons." 1-1 orders, my autopilot adjusts me the slightest bit to make room for the other Longsword's.

The bombers form the wedge, other call signs do the same within their own squadrons. We approach one of the cruisers as two MAC rounds fly past our formations, catching one of the cruisers by surprise and literally cutting it in half, one less to deal with. The rest of the enemy fleet activates shields, Seraph flight craft fly out of the enemy hangars, flying towards our formation.

"Stinger, break off and engage." 1-1 says, every Longsword formation breaks as we begin to engage the enemy ship's.

I increase our speed, I feel myself pushed back into my seat, I flick open the weapon stick, I switch it around until 120mm bullets are loaded, I open fire, using my inertia to turn and tear through two Seraphs, my inertia dampeners reactivate and I slow down, I start locking on to targets, the Longsword system engages Seraph bombers automatically with missiles, until I tell it to stop, retaking the controls after a couple of missiles collided with nothing but shields.

"Mandy, we got a Seraph on our tail." Oryan informs me, I mentally roll my eyes at the nickname.

"Danke, Oreo." I tell him, turning off the dampeners again, I veer left on the joystick, my Longsword turns and continues flying backwards at the same speed and velocity it was before, the beauty of inertia.

"Bang bang, motherfuckers." I mutter, pressing down on the trigger, shells fly towards the Seraph that was behind me, I give partial control to Oryan, who fires two missiles in quick secession, both colliding with the hull of the space craft, tearing it apart.

I flip around again, my dampeners reactivating as I continue the dog fight.

"Ah shit! This is 1-2 I got five Seraphs on my ass, I'm not gonna- FUCK!" The signal to 1-2 cuts off, the lance of Scarabs flies away from the wreckage and flies behind me.

"Shit, Oreo, get on comm." I yell, veering to the right, this time my engines propelling me to the right instead of turning me around.

"This is 2-1, we need immediate assistance, same Scarabs." Oryan says in the radio.

A couple of rounds ping off of the Seraphs behind us, that's when our luck grew tremendously, a Frigate flew behind us, literally tanking the five Seraphs. Several more ships fly behind him, firing their MAC cannons at the same time, destroying another Corvette, a CCS Battlecruiser adjusts it's broadside and opens up on the lead Frigate, obliterating it before it could do anything.

"All Stinger elements, were escorting a Pelican to that CCS, form diamond around craft marked and prepare for defense." 1-1 says, marking the bird on our HUDs.

"Oreo, check weapons system and access ops and see what were dealing with." I order, turning us and propelling our ship towards the objective, a single Pelican flies towards the Battlecruiser, our Longsword's form around it.

We approach the enemy ship, it opens up on another set of Frigates while they fire their MAC rounds again, the large rounds smash into the ship's shields, barely denting it. We get the Pelican to the ship, but that's when things got crazy. The back of the ship opens and a squad of Rangers jumps out, behind them a behemoth of a man wearing a huge armored suit jumps out, holding a large cylinder in one hand and a M7 in the other.

"Stinger elements, break off." 1-1 orders, I turn our plane as the UNSC on the Battlecruiser engage Sangheili rangers. I do another pass of the Battlecruiser, the giant man places the cylinder down, more rounds slam into the Battlecruiser before it's shields die out, the men jump back into the Pelican and fly off back to where they came from, I speed away from the Battlecruiser before it explodes into a billion tiny pieces.

"All Stinger elements, were going to the surface, I repeat, adjust to the surface of Rullins, the boys down there need our help." 1-1 orders, I look at 1-1's ship, confused.

"Well, looks like we lost." Oryan says, pointing over at the retreating Prefect battle group, the group of ships goes behind the planet again as we dive through the atmosphere. The cabin starts to heat up, but is immediately cooled by the atmosphere control of the ship.

"Waypoint set." 1-1 says as a marker appears on our HUDs, the waypoint was at an airfield around Ghale.

I adjust my direction towards the airfield, landing my Longsword after slowing down.

"2-1, your both manning your own Falcons, your SpecOps, so deal with it, good luck." 1-1 says after landing.

Oryan gets a childish look on his face, obviously giddy to fly the gunships. I just shake my head as I climb into the cockpit of the gunship. The weapons system flashes to life on my HUD, I had access to one AGM rocket, several hundred Hellfire missiles and an almost infinite amount of 120mm shells. The sun starts to set as I get a waypoint on my HUD, I start up the propellers, the gunship lifts as I increase the speed, once the ship lifts the engines form to those of a plane, allowing me to go faster. Oryan and I fly towards the waypoint, the darkness spreading over our side of the planet. Occasionally plasma flies up and around my ship, causing the cockpit to shake.

Our Falcons get within forty miles of the objective before a transmission appears on my HUD.

"This is Chief Kile, identify yourself." I say through the radio.

"This is Gunnery Sergeant Nicholas Wolfe, reporting in, I heard you were dispatched to us?" I heard, the radio was not as clear as usual, gunfire and plasma fire clashed over the radio.

"Yes, what's your situation, Sergeant?" I ask, paying attention now.

"We are in need of support, we are currently, oh fuck, Hawkins get on that!" Wolfe yells over the radio, more gunfire. "Sorry, we are currently surrounded, we'll be using several IR strobes to mark enemy positions, things are starting to quiet down, but I don't trust it." He says, cutting the comm.

"You hear that, Oreo?" I ask him, his acknowledgment light winks in response. I stop the gunship, hovering for a second, plasma and tracer rounds light up the grounds in front of me, it was obvious that the Covenant outnumbered us heavily here.

The grounds suddenly go dark, the Covenant had been covering fire to cover their retreat into the forests, it stayed like that for another ten minutes before my HUD detected movement, helmet lights at the base turn on and things calm down, but the Covenant had dug themselves into the fields around the base.

"Strobes out." I hear over the radio.

The grounds around the base light up red from a flare shot straight up over the base, I see blinking red lights from my HUD, most of them land among large clusters of Covenant readying for battle the next morning. Tracer rounds fly from the base again, tearing through the Covenant before I get the chance to fire.

I aim for large clusters, holding down the hellfire missile button, the missiles send body parts and multi colored blood everywhere, two Hunter pairs aim at my ship, readying their weapons, Oryan fires his AGM, the explosion kills all of the Hunters and most of the aliens around them within a ten meter radius.

I use my AGM on a cluster of Jackals who had gotten the brilliant plan to form the classic tortoise formation with their energy shields to cover high ranking elites, the entire alien line and their leadership goes out with a bang.

Plasma flies around our gunships, I adjust my position and I fire my cannon at them, UNSC artillery falls around the base, sinking itself into the ground before lifting the ground up with a large explosion, taking out a ton of aliens.

The low ranking Grunts lead the retreat, tripping over each other to get back to where they had come from, we our gunships follow, killing half of the force before they could get into heavy foliage.

"2-1, report back to base for next assignment." I hear over the long range radio in my gunship.

I turn my ship around, turning it back to a plane and flying off back towards the airfield, when we land we immediately are rushed into our Longsword.

"Flight check." I tell Oryan.

"All systems green, Chief." He tells me, after typing a couple of commands into the ops console.

We take off again, as do all the other Stinger elements, a waypoint appears on my HUD.

"Were doing a bombing run near Ghale, the Marines there need some cover for a Med evac." 1-1 says over the radio, everybody but 1-2 winks their acknowledgment lights, I sigh when I remember how they died.

We reach Ghale quickly, the waypoint not far, suddenly the way point appears into several red targets for bombs, we zoom over and start to loop around, breaking our formation.

I link up my HUD to one of the Marines, Private First Class Velstadt Khan, his first person perspective was a Marine he was dragging, the Marine's face was charred beyond recognition and some of it was starting to fall off. He drags the Marine to another two, one of them laying on the ground with only one arm. A phantom streaks over them, I grin, the whole reason I had been looking through the soldier's helmet was to find a target to hit.

I dive down, seeing the phantom, I drop one of the bombs inside of my Longsword before pulling up, watching the Phantom explode behind me, just before landing. Wraiths show up and disappear on my radar as 1-1 and 2-2 intercept the tanks and blow them to hell.

"Get Shrake and Ramirez into that fuckin' bird!" One of the Marines yells, the Pelican lands and it's back opens, the Marines carry the men into it and place them on the blood tray, the bird takes off and we follow after killing off a couple squads of elite's.

"Right, the Pelican is safe, one more and then were bailing for the night." 1-1 says, the three Longsword's turn to the final checkpoint, a Army Ranger squad pinned down on a fifteen story building, the ops file revealed our main task of knocking out any major threat to the building, which made me semi-confused considering we were also a large threat to that building.

The city glowed with fire as we flew over it, watching out for the building 1-1 had told us about. Plasma flak went around 2-2's fighter as we flew over an enemy encampment, 2-2 dropped one of his 300 kg bomb's, obliterating the place.

We flew over the building, and I started to understand why they needed our help, a Seraph fighter flew over us, several Phantoms hover over the roof, but were blown up by 1-1's auto cannon. One of the few Scarabs took up a position behind me, I went straight up and looped around to the bastard's tail, sending two missiles into it for a two tap kill, sending the alien craft crashing into a building across the street from the Ranger's.

I link my helmet up to one of theirs, a Specialist who was using most of his MA37 ammo by pouring rounds down the stairs. Spec ops elites tried climbing the stairs with little luck, getting gunned down by the Ranger's.

"Pelican is here! Blow up the stairs and move out!" Someone yells, I watch as the Specialist places down a block of C12 against one of the supports for that side of the building before running out to the helipad where the debris of the two Phantoms still glowed brightly.

A single Pelican landed, and about a squad of Ranger's loaded in at a time, only two squads remained of the five after the Pelican lifted off, with promises of another bird.

I do another fly by, following the Pelican, and warding off a lance of Banshee's getting ready for advance. I look back and I watch the building the Ranger's were in collapse, halfway where the C12 was, now only a half of the building remained. Another Pelican soars past me.

"Stinger elements, return to the _Die Like Heretics_." 1-1 says, I wink my light, but there is no response from 2-2.

"1-1, this is 2-1, where the fuck is 2-2?" I ask, I hear a sigh over the radio.

"Just shut up and go, Kile." He says, I pull me craft up and we start to go back into space where a devastating battle is still obvious, around four Covenant ships were destroyed, and around ten of the Frozen Luck battleground were gone.

"So, about that dinner." Oryan starts.

"Whatever, I'll go." I tell him, a slight smile from behind my visor.

"Really?" He asks.

"Yeah, as a friend." I tell him, I can visually see his ego dying before laugh again before we dock back into our ship, two Stinger Longsword spots empty.

_  
>Authors note.<p>

Sorry for the short chapter, I wanted to do a cliffhanger tease kind of thing for the next couple of chapters and a follow up on the last one, by blowing up everything and making it seem like the UNSC was going to win. Now, when I fully get off of Rullins, each serviceman I introduce will be in a different battle, on a different planet, which of course can change if people Review and tell me I'm stupid for even thinking of putting that many chapters into a single planetary battles, cuz guess what? We got a couple more soldier's to introduce one of which was in this chapter, so next chapter will be the UNSC Army Rangers.

Leave a Review if you enjoyed.

Read on  
>-Rsk<p> 


	9. Lead the Way

Chapter VIII: Lead the Way

Rullins II, Outer Colonies  
>February 19th, 2531 UNSC Calender<br>Specialist Andrew Wood  
>Army Airborne Ranger's, 1-503rd battalion, Legion company, second platoon first squad<p>

The inside of a pelican is cold and depressing, considering it was always the thing that picked us up from terrible battles and dropped us into terrible battles. But the pelican could not compare to the desolation of Ghale, the city was being burnt to a husk, the atmosphere of the tropical planet had been fucked from the glassing, when it rained, it rained ash, which was what was happening right now, as we sat in the cover of defilade, our MA37's at the ready. We had just done a HALO jump out of a Pelican flying at speeds most men wouldn't have dreamed of when they created our beautiful corps.

Our battle group, _Frozen Luck_ had designated a high value enemy target perfect for light infantry assaults. The enemy was not designated by the standard of minor and major Elite but this one had a fancier headdress and was two feet taller than most elite's. So in other words it was so tall HIGHCOM wanted to kill it and not bother to designate it.

I groan slightly, looking at all the soldiers around me, I was probably one of the only ones here who bothered to grab a college education on my way off world. We start to move, considering it was night time and we were behind enemy lines, we moved low and fast, covering each other to get from cover to cover.

"Tige, move up with your fire team." I hear Ferensic order, our squad leader crouches near the front of our squad.

"Wood, your up." Tige says from next to me, I look around for contact before sprinting into the Covenant held facility. I take cover by a wall, motioning for the rest of the squad to move up.

They move up and we officially enter Ghale.

Every rifle that a Ranger owned would come with an extension to the barrel, elongating it and therefore making the shots quieter, every man in our squad had theirs attached. We enter after Bravo fire team meets up with us. My HUD flashes as midnight approaches.

"Breaching, 3...2... Go." Tige says, we enter and open up on two Elites and a couple of Grunts on a boring patrol, multi colored blood splatters against the ground behind them as they collapse.

"Breach and clear it quickly, we still have to get to the objective." Ferensic says, we walk along the wall of the inside, walking in, several Marines lay on the ground, gaping holes in their chests from god knows what.

When we enter the main room, we look around.

"Clear left!"

"Clear right!"

"Move out."

We jog out of the facility back on to the road where human bodies litter the ground, most with plasma or energy sword wounds that ended their lives.

"Target ahead." I hear through comm, I look to my right, all Airborne squads were moving parallel to each other so that we could clear the streets before entering the giant building.

We fan out into the lobby of our target building, each squad was to clear the four fifteen stories on that street, that way we could find the giant ass Elite and deal with him effectively.

No aliens appear to us as we walk in, we check each corner of the room before calling out that it's clear.

"Right, our UAV is showing heat sigs on the fourteenth and fifteenth floor, Bravo fire team will go fourteenth, Alpha will go topside, understood?" Ferensic asks, the fire team leaders respond with Hooah's.

"Alpha, on me." Tige orders, we jog into an open elevator, he presses the button and we start to go up. The elevator shakes, I look up and I see a blue glow through the top vent of the elevator.

"Shit." I say, the elevator shakes again as we jog out, the last two people are about to jog out when suddenly the elevator drops, all fifteen stories, two elites remain, both wearing Spec Ops armor, this disappear and jump away.

"Fuck! Blake, Clian! Respond!" Tige yells through squad net, I watch as the two names on our roster go red.

"Tige, the fuck just happened?" Ferensic asks, perfectly calm.

"This is the fuckin' building, it's crawling with Spec ops, they just dropped two of my guys by cuttin' the elevator cables." Tige says, he was panicking.

"Right, the other four Airborne squads are on their way to assist us, considering their buildings are clear, just wait two while they get up the steps."

"Two mikes for fifteen stories? Right." Tige says before cutting the net.

The remainder of our team looks around, our heads on a swivel at all times. I see a shimmer and I open fire, sending the entire thirty two bullet magazine into the unshielded elite who thought he'd get the best of me, he collapses as his blood splatters on to the large window behind him.

"Fuck, were screwed, we got Spec ops in a building with outside walls that are entirely windows." I hear Jane say, her voice emphasized because of fire team net.

"Stop complaining, rest of the Legion is almost here." Tige says, referring to our platoon's call sign.

Footsteps from behind send me looking that direction, I watch the squads fan out around the large floor, each area of the fifteenth floor was cut off by cubicles or some other room, the stereotypical office building, plenty of places for someone to hide, especially if they had access to the giant landing pad on the roof. Modern technology in a nutshell.

Tige starts to move, so we follow, walking along the windows that were the only thing between us and the outside.

"Alpha, report in." Tige says.

"Jane here."

"Utah reportin'."

"Wood here."

"Petro repor-"

The soldier never got to finish his last words. I hear glass breaking from behind and the a scream, I turn and I watch almost on slow motion the elite put his foot back down, Petro falls, his screams fade as he falls lower, his name goes red and his vitals flatline.

I raise my gun and I depress the trigger, the elite charges and runs into me, it takes all of my strength to push him out of the open window, a death fit for a sick bastard. Before I knew it, I was falling out of the window too, but I just hang there, my helmet hits against the glass wall in front of me, I feel a breeze, I look up and I realize I'm hanging upside down, the ground below me had Petro and the Elite dead, sitting there unmoving. I feel a pull and before I know it, I'm back inside, staring straight into Jane's polarized helmet.

"Thanks." I tell her, she just nods and our team keeps on walking forward.

"Fuck it, Alpha, heat sensors are on from here on out, I don't care if you can't see or shoot well, I want a warning before another one of you, or me gets hit." Tige says, we all nod in agreement, the world around me turns into black and white heat signatures.

"Fuck! This is Specialist Perry taking over for- kill that fucker!" Gunfire erupts through the radio, another scream pierces through, causing me to wince.

"Shit.. No! Please! AHHH-" I close my eyes and I mute comms, I look at Tige, who's visor depolarized.

"We've tracked their last position, let's move." Tige says, we jog up the hall, disoriented but safe, no resistance until we reached the cafeteria that squad had been in. Every single wall in the room was covered in blood, bodies hang from the ceilings or are plastered to walls, limbs torn off or gaping holes in their chests.

"The fuck?!" Tige yells, I walk forward, my heat sensor turns off as I step on a corpse, I look down, the man's chest cavity had been ripped open, all of his organs ripped out, his helmet tags him as Specialist Perry.

I take my helmet off and I turn away before throwing up on to the floor, the remainder of my fire team looks around at the bodies before Tige reports in to Ferensic.

"Whole bunch of apes went nuts in here, Sarge, what is command not telling us?" Tige asks.

"Right, I am broadcasting this over platoon net because I believe it is not right to hold this information any longer." Ferensic says, our Lieutenant starts to speak up but he is quickly interrupted by the platoon Sergeant.

"Go ahead Ferensic." The Sergeant says.

"Earlier today a Brute chieftain of high leadership was killed by a small squad of Marines, the Elite we are hunting was with the bastard, he fucked up one of our Marines and ran off to here, with a vanguard of elites and brutes to protect him, I guess the apes are still pissed. Mission priority remains the same, take out that son of a bitch." Ferensic says, the platoon net gets cut by the Lieutenant before anybody can respond.

We walk through the cafeteria before we find the apes, walking on all fours and snarling at us. Our fire team opens fire, one of the apes jumps on Jane, I jam my foot between them and I kick upwards, depressing the trigger of my gun, sending bullet after bullet into the Brute's nose. It collapses, and I help Jane up.

"I guess were even, huh?" I ask.

Jane opens up, killing a Brute that got to close to me. "Not anymore." She replies, I grin from behind my polarized visor, we keep shooting. Eventually the brutes stop coming, I breathe heavily, I reload quickly and I discard the empty magazine, no point in wasting pocket space to store them. We take the pace down, walking slowly with our weapons raised, I watch my ammo counter, every once in awhile the number will flicker and change, a sure sign that it was battered and needed to be fixed. We round a corner, all four of us in a horizontal line across the hallway, an unsound strategy from taking contact from both sides, but we hadn't confirmed the enemy being behind us. My HUD's motion tracker seems to flare red as at least twenty signatures show up as being just ahead of us. We all stop, I crouch as the signatures get closer.

The door in front of us is kicked open, a man aims a M6 towards us, he wears a tattered business suit, blood pours out of his right arm where a bite mark protrudes.

"Stand down." He says, still aiming at us.

I look over at Tige, confused. "Drop your weapon, we're here to help." Tige says, carefully.

The man shakes his head, I see a small face peek out from behind him.

"Listen, I've got women and children here, I know how you Innie's operate." He says to us, the M6 starts to shake in his hands.

"Ehm, we aren't Innie's, friend." Tige says, all of our visors depolarize, showing confused or hardened faces.

"Then who the hell are you?" The man demands, two more gun barrels stick out, leveling with our heads.

"Listen, my name is Corporal Tige of the UNSC Airborne special operations I think-." He is cut off when the man fires, the round flies straight through Tige's visor, making his head jerk back as blood stains the inside of his helmet.

"Shit!" Jane yells, we all open fire, bullets tear through the man and the people behind him, blood splatters on to the floor as he collapses.

"Fuck you!" I yell, letting go of a frag grenade, it rolls into the room and detonates, blood splatters the wall inside.

Utah had crouched down next to Tige, pulling off his helmet and examining the wound, he shakes his head and grab's the Corporal's dog tags. I look down at my boots as his name turns red.

"This is Specialist Utah, taking over Alpha fire team in place of Corporal Tige." Utah says over comm, the only private here was Jane, and she was a Private First Class.

"Alpha, were moving." Utah says, we start walking forward again, just the three of us.

We stand next to a door marked by squad net and kick it down, breaching into the room, where the biggest elite I had ever seen and a squad of Jackals waited for us.

We immediately get into cover as one of the Jackals opens up, Utah hides behind a pillar while Jane and I flip over a table, which was decently reliable. The room stretched five meters deep and three meters wide, allowing for the perfect ambush and fire fight place. I pop up and I fire a burst towards a Jackal, ending it's journey.

Utah moves up, when he's about to get into cover I watch as a Jackal charges him, Jane takes it out, but two more jump on to Utah, Jane reloads, fumbling for a new magazine while I fire off another burst, killing one of the birds. I fire again, but when I pull the trigger my rifle clicks empty.

The Jackal pulls an energy dagger and stabs it into Utah, slicing open his armor but not touching his skin. Utah's armor falls to the floor as I reload, the Jackal sticks it's beak into Utah's chest, I close my eyes as Utah cries out in pain as the Jackal starts to eat him.

"Fuck you!" Utah spits, I open my eyes, Utah holds a grenade, it explodes.

The Jackal dies with him, the grenade sends shrapnel flying around the room, one of which slams hits Jane on her shoulder.

She cries out in pain as I pull back the bolt of my MA37, I open up on the rest of the Jackals before noticing the elite was gone. I get out of cover.

"C'mon you coward!" I yell, I hear a footstep to my left, I turn and I see the Elite, holding two energy swords. It lunges towards me, adrenaline flows into my blood stream and everything seems to go into slow motion again. I step to the side, I feel the sword cut into the side of my armor as the Elite passes me, time resumes as I spin around, unloading my clip into the Elite's back.

It roars as it turns again, it's shields still at full capacity. It charges again, this time knocking my gun out of my hands as it passes. I hear a magnum fire, and I knew it was Jane, I grab my combat knife, standard issue, and I spin it, facing the Elite.

The beast throws away one of it's swords and lunges again, I side step and I slash down on it's arm, causing it's shields to flicker. It charges again, but when I side step it stabs towards me, the twin tips of the energy sword sinking into my shoulder, the Elite passes and tears my shoulder out.

I scream in pain, adrenaline flies through my veins, giving me the last strength to lunge at the cheeky bastard and jam my knife into it's mouth, straight into the back of it's throat. It chokes out and fall over, I fall on top of it, I feel myself being dragged but I refuse to move my head to see who, when we pass my MA37, I grab it and I continue to lay limp as I am dragged.

I feel bio foam enter my shoulder and I cry out in pain, I hear a quiet curse, arms wrap around me as more enters my shoulder, I stay quiet still trying to figure out what was happening. I feel myself being dragged, the right side of my vision where the glass wall is, lights up blue as plasma hits it, the person dragging me goes faster, setting me down and opening fire towards the windowed wall.

"Andrew! Get the fuck up!" I hear Jane scream, I give myself a reality check as I stand, I hold my gun with one hand, still waiting for my shoulder to stop hurting so bad. We rush into a cubicle where a fire team of Ranger's was guarding the stairs. We join them, I open up on several Spec Op elite's trying to climb the stairs with little luck, they go down easily.

"Pelican is here! Blow up these stairs and move out!" The soldier next to me yells, I grab my block of C12, Jane covers me as I spread it on one of the supports.

We run up to the last flight of stairs, running on to the roof where a Pelican was already taking off.

"Fuck!" I yell, the bird takes off, I find Ferensic, Jane and I set up, aiming down the stairs where he was.

"Don't worry, there's another bird coming." Ferensic says, I look up as a Longsword soars overhead, following a flight of Banshee's following the Pelican that had just taken off.

More Covenant start to come up the stairs to the roof, the remaining Rangers open fire on them, tearing them apart. Phantom drops ships start to fly in, one flies near us and gets shot out of the sky by a SPANKR rocket, causing one of the Grunts manning a plasma cannon to trip and fall out, cracking it's head on the side of the building before falling to the ground below.

Another Pelican flies in, we start to back up, the hatch opens, a crewman stands on it, a MA5 in his hand.

"C'mon!" He yells, firing off a couple of rounds at a Grunt, we start to run in, a plasma grenade falls on to the hatch as Jane and I run in, I tackle her to the floor as it goes off, blackening the hatch, but not harming me of Jane. We set down, I rub my shoulder.

"Well, Wood? What are you waiting for?" Ferensic asks, motioning to the detonator on my belt.

The back hatch reopens. "Alright, 3...2...1." I say, counting on my fingers, I squeeze the detonator, the half of the building explodes, leaving only one half remaining. "Just wait." I tell them, the rest of the building falls, taking out a building across the street.

"Fuck yeah!" Ferensic says, the Ranger's around me grin as we fly up into the atmosphere.

We break the atmosphere, the hatch had already closed before we went out with no oxygen. I open up on the pilot's perspective on my helmet, the area around us was filled with debris, a large chunk of plating flies by us, it reads: Frozen Luck.

"Oh shit..." Jane mutters as we fly towards the UNSC _Prefect_.

_  
>Author's note<p>

This is the second to last chapter of Rullins ( I promise ). Next chapter will be back to the perspective of Private Ryan Shrake, and then we majestically fly off to some other system. I am very happy to see good feedback on this story because I didn't know if it would work out or not, which it has, so I thank you. Anybody catch the Star Ship Troopers reference? If so, good job. Here's the three R's.

Review, follow and favorite for more!  
>Read on<br>-Rsk


	10. The Hell of it All

Chapter VIIII: The Hell of it All

Rullins II, Outer Colonies  
>February 20th, 2531, UNSC Calender<br>Private Ryan Shrake  
>UNSC Marine Corps<p>

The sound of Ramirez screaming wakes me, I blink my right eye, I can't see out of my left, but I can still feel it there, a good sign considering what had happened.

"Fucking hell! The beacon is down but so is Shrake we need fucking- Oh shit." I hear Khan start, a CCS Battlecruiser warps over us.

I feel myself being dragged again, I close my eye, I reopen it to see a blood trail from my back as I am dragged, the polycrete tearing at the open hole in the back of my armor. I look over at Figel and Ramirez, Figel slaps him across the face, but I see it in slow motion, everything turning black and white.

HUD glasses are put on my face as I am dragged, and a magnum is dropped into my lap, I pick it up and I fire over and over, weakly controlling the recoil of the weapon as Grunt's start to charge us.

"Shrake! Get the fuck up now!" Khan yells, it brings me back to reality, I aim a shot and I pull the trigger, the magnum clicks empty. With my other arm I fumble for a pistol magazine, which I find and I quickly slam into my gun, firing into the Grunt minors that got too close for comfort. I exhale loudly as my weapon clicks empty again, the last Grunt I had shot was literally two feet off of hitting me, the head of the little monster still spurting blood. I cry out when I reload, my side exploding in pain. I look down and I see a glowing needle stuck into it, I drop my pistol and I yank it out, causing me to cry out again as I throw it at the nearest Grunt, the needle explodes into its face, temporarily blinding it.

"Catch motherfucker!" I hear Khan yell, throwing a frag grenade at a Grunt, the alien catches it and has a smug look on its face before exploding, causing Khan and I to burst out in laughter, despite the situation. My pistol clicks as I load another bullet into the chamber, I fire again, still firing one handed, Khan grabs the back of my armor again and starts to drag me again.

"Heard you boys needed support." I hear over my radio. Khan sets me down and starts to spray into the crowd in front of us, I fire the magnum the best I can, I hear the sound of aircraft in the air as three super sonic bombers fly over, the Covenant lines in front of us explode in a rain of fire and machine guns that were fired quickly enough to account for the fact those bombers were so damned fast. The rest of the Covenant are quickly and easily disposed of, some of the Grunts getting away in the process.

Another aircraft flies over us, a Pelican marked with a Red Cross on the side, I drop the magnum as I slip into unconsciousness.

I open my eyes and I see the titanium ceiling of the UNSC Prefect, the beeping of a heart rate monitor makes me double check my surroundings, Khan sleeps in a chair next to the bed I'm in and Ramirez is in the bed across the room, Figel next to him, he screams, doctors holding him down as they try to get something on to his leg.

"Fuck." I mutter, I could still only see out of the right side of my face, the other half still covered with bandages.

Khan looks up at me and a grin spreads across his face. "You're a tough motherfucker, taking one across the face like that." He says, patting my shoulder.

"Please, it was just a beacon, you dragged me the fuck out, since when were you Medal of Honor material like that?" I ask, he laughs and shakes his head, looking over at Ramirez, his smile drops as he watched the doctors operate on him.

I start to get up, ripping the IV attached to my arm off, swinging my legs around to the side of the bed and standing, my legs explode in pain for a second before going back to normal, I shake my feet for a moment before walking out of the Med Bay, the medics too busy on Ramirez to notice me.

The first thing I do when I walk out is go to one of the holo boards in the hallway of the ship, I scan the casualty list for a second before sighing in relief, no Jennifer Orwich on the list. I walk up the hall before opening a barracks door, Jenn sits inside, her datapad in her lap.

"You're late." She says, I laugh and I walk over, sitting next to her. "I didn't think it was funny, I've been double checking that casualty list." She says.

"Takes more than a horde of Grunts to kill me, Jenn." I say with a laugh. "Plus I couldn't exactly help getting the left side of my face burned off."

She looks up from her datapad, examining the bandages strewn across my face. "You're alive, that's what matters." She tells me, I nod and I watch her out away her datapad.

"Glad you're alive, too Jenn." I say, meeting her gaze, she laughs and kisses me on the cheek, causing me to blink. "That's your reward for staying alive, Rye." She says, her face colored a deep red.

"Danke." I say with a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of my head. She just shakes her head. "I'm gonna grab something to eat." She says, starting to stand.

"Should I go with you or go somewhere else?" I ask her, she looks down at me and raises an eyebrow. "Whatever you want." She says, I stand and we walk out towards the Galley.

When we sit down, I notice how practically empty the place is, many spots in the Galley were empty even with Navy personnel eating here, symbolizing how many Marines we had lost during the defense of Rullins. I look over at the ODST's, the table for their platoon was kissing eleven spots, the ODST's had their own table, so they didn't have to deal with us jarheads as they put it.

I grab a tray and I sit down, several announcements blade over the intercom as we prepare to go into slipspace, Jenn sits next to me and we talk quietly for a couple of minutes, mostly about our experiences planetside.

Someone sits down next to me, I look at him for a second before grinning. "Whatsup, Corporal?" I ask Jast, he looks at me and laughs. "Sergeant, now." He says.

"Jesus Christ, I haven't even gotten First class yet." I say with a laugh, he chuckles and starts to eat, I resume talking with Jenn, but every once in awhile Jast and I start a conversation about something.

"So, I was watching these hinge heads try to climb some stairs, they looked fuckin' ridiculous." Jast says, I laugh and then the intercom calls out again.

"Privates Shrake, Khan, and Figel, report to the Mission prep room." The intercom beeps again and I stand, saying goodbye to Jast and Jenn.

"I'll see you later, Rye." Jenn says with a laugh, standing and walking out, Jast raises an eyebrow at me but I just wave him off, jogging to Mission prep.

When I arrived, I realize that Khan and Figel had best me there, I walk in and I salute the First Lieutenant in the room, he nods to me and I drop the salute, falling into line with the two other Marines.

"I would first like to offer an apology for leaving you at that evacuation site, Marines, this company should not have left that area, but luckily, five thousand out of the sixteen made it off planet at that site, which is pretty damn good for four Marines." Lieutenant says to us, we nod and he continues. "I would first like to congratulate Private Figel for your promotion to First class, but that will be the only promotion today. My biggest new is the promotion of Corporal Jast to Sergeant, due to the loss of many squad leader during our operations on Rullins." He says, I raise my eyebrow.

"Sir, sorry to interrupt, but what does this have to do with us...?" I ask, he looks at me and smiles, even though it was more than likely a gesture of kindness it made me shiver throughout my spine.

"Well, Private, Jast will be starting a new squad along with Sergeant Hughes, Grizzly and Gorilla squads, whic will help form the new Joker company, which means more positions have opened up, specifically for men of your expertise and physical state." He says, we all nod again, he starts to pace back and forth between us. "Private Khan, Sergeant Jast has requested that you become one of his fire team leaders, do you accept the transfer?" He ask Khan, I can see him visibly gulp.

"Aye, sir." Khan says, the Lieutenant nods.

"Congratulations, Lance Corporal." He tell him, shaking his hand, Khan grins as the Lieutenant walks in front of me.

"Private Shrake, I got a medical report explaining to me that you aim with your left eye, which will never be able to see the same way with how bad it was burnt." He tells me, my eyes flick down to my boots.

"However, your knack for survival is noticeable, which is why I am offering you the rank of Private First Class and the position of RTO in Jester company." He says, offering his hand to shake.

I shake his hand. "Sir, I know nothing about radio chat." I say to him, looking at his hand.

"Son, that's why we'll teach you." He says, his hand still in the same position.

"Aye, sir." I say, shaking his hand with a firm grip. He hands me my chevrons and a date, time and location to learn about radio comm.

"Last but not least, Private Figel." He says, stepping in front of him. "Private Shrake will need a guard while in combat, and I'm thinking you're the man for the job." He says to him, offering his hand, Figel shakes it and the Lieutenant nods. "Report to the same location as Private Shrake on the same day." He tells him, stepping back from our three man line. "Privates Figel and Shrake, you will also be attached to Gorilla squad." He says to us, eyeing us carefully. "Marines, dismissed." He says to us.

"Hoorah, sir!" We all say in synchronization, he waves us off and we walk out.

I had never seen Figel out of armor, but now I examine him, he has a straight face, and a lean body, trimmed eyebrows and a clean shaven face, blue eyes and the standard military buzz cut, along with brown hair, standing next to Khan, he is about two inches shorter than the darker man, his family originally from India before moving out to the stars, he has a trimmed beard and her black hair, having the same build as Figel.

We walk down the hallway, mostly talking quietly about our new positions, the RTO training was in about two hours in the hangar, for whatever reason, which means I had a few to waste.

I split off from the crew and I jog up to Jenn's barrack, sitting down next to her on the bed. "I got promoted." I tell her, she nods and laughs. "About time." She says, Jenn has a French accent and blonde hair, hazel eyes and a soft face, she didn't have a muscular tone to her, but she is strong having joined the Marines.

"Whatsup?" She asks, looking at me. I just shrug and I look over in the corner.

"Rye, I got something to show you." She tells me, standing up and motioning for me to do the same, when I stand she examines me for a second.

"What is it?" I ask, my hand rubbing the back of my head, the short haircut fuzzy beneath my fingers.

"Hold still." She says, her body was an inch away from mine, she was about three inches shorter than I am, she stands up on her tippy toes and softly kisses me on the lips, surprised I kiss her back before she breaks the kiss and looks up at me with eyebrows raised.

I blink and I look at her. "What propelled you to do that?" I asked her, she giggles. "I dunno." She says, her face starting to return to a neutral state.

"Well, I enjoyed it." I say to her, her face lightens up again as she grins.

_

My eyes open when I hear my helmet beep quietly in the corner, Jenn breathes softly next to me, my arms wrapped around her. I move out of the bunk quietly, putting my armor on over my fatigues that I hadn't taken off, and I walk out of the barracks door, jogging to the hangar. When I got there I was greeted by Figel and a Lance Corporal with a large bandage from the left shoulder of his UNSC shirt down to his wrist, wrapping around to the back as if to keep his arm supported.

"Private Shrake, glad you could make it." He says to me, I nod and he picks up a backpack off the ground, thrusting it forward into my chest, I grab it and examine it.

"This is your LRR, or Long Range Radio, one of the requirements for being an RTO is that you know how to effectively use this beautiful piece of equipment." He says to me.

"My name is Lance Corporal Frohike, and I will be reaching you the basics." He says to me and Figel, he goes through the radio commands and everything I would need to know, including gear load outs and who I was supposed to stick with at all times.

When we were done, he said something into his helmet radio and walked out, Figel and I, having become acquainted with one another walked to the simulation room that the Prefect possessed.

We walked in and I turned on the holo grams, the AI in the simulation programming a situation for me automatically, I grab an MA5B assault rifle while I wait, and I load it, my helmet straps secured to the bottom of my chin.

The simulation takes over my HUD, giving me view of an Elite with an energy sword, a Jackal with a beam rifle and a little girl who looked to be around thirteen. The sniper takes aim at me while the Elite trudges towards the girl.

The first time I tried it, I sprayed at the Elite and killed the girl, restarting the simulation, I took better care of aiming and I killed the Elite but the Jackal shot me. I watch Figel leave the room out of the corner of my eye, focusing back in on the simulation. This time I fire at the Jackal while running forward, I tackle the girl that felt real but wasn't because of the simulation as the Elite was about to slash down on her, another beam flies over my head and I take the shot, killing the Jackal, as I turn towards the Elite is stabs me straight through my back. I stand to run the simulation again but this time it shuts down, my HUD shows me the normal world in front of me instead of just my peripherals, I see a young woman dressed in a white suit, various badges pinned to her chest.

I immediately snap to attention, my right hand touching the end of my eyebrow of the same side.

"At ease." She tells me, I drop the salute and I start to apologize but she just waves me off. "I was watching your simulation, and I had some questions." She answers, I nod. "Why didn't you let the girl die?" She asks me, her left eyebrow raised, she has light brown hair and black eyes, a set face with a small scar on her lower lip, she looked about twenty eight but that's not counting cryo years. A badge sits on her right shoulder, the mark of a Vice Admiral.

"Ma'am, a civilian's life is more valuable than mine." I tell her, she nods before speaking again. "I think you were taught the opposite, Marine." She says to me.

"Ma'am, I do not believe I am of upmost importance to be in presence of a Vice Admiral for just notes on a simulation, was there another reason you came down?" I ask her, she smiles and looks at me.

"You just have a very interesting file." She tells me, I just shrug, my functioning eye flicks down to my boots, spread out in the parade rest stance.

"But the main reason I am here is to give a letter from your friends in ONI." She says, handing me a holo tape, something I can easily just plug into my datapad. "That is all, good bye." She says, walking out of the room.

I put my MA5B into one of the crates along with the rest of my ammo and I walk to my barrack, luckily nobody is in there when I walk up the hall and into the small room for enlisted personnel such as myself. I plug the holo tape into my datapad and I read the file.

"Good afternoon, Ryan, that's what it is here on Reach, at least. I would like a debrief of your first operation at the ONI tower. - Your handler, Dean."

I groan as I read it, the man who had gotten me into the Marine Corps in the first place now wanted me to talk to him face to face on a professional topic. I pull the tape out and I put the datapad under my bunk, I walk for about ten minutes before reaching the cryo bay, where I freeze myself for our journey to Reach.

_

The cryo pod opens when I awaken, I climb out and I grab my fatigues and Marine Corps T-shirt and I get dressed, not looking at any of the others around me, the guys make fun of some of the girls as usual before I walk out, I head down the hallway to the hangar where Pelican's are getting ready to disembark, I made sure my knife was still in it's place on my side and my Magnum there too, you could never be too paranoid, my dog tags jingle as I jog towards the nearest Pelican. I sit down close to the pilot as the Pelican lifts off, almost a full load of people.

I feel my stomach lurch as we leave the gravity of the Prefect, then re enter Reach's atmosphere, the entire Prefect_ battlegroup was docked here, getting repairs made before the next mission. When the Pelican lands I jump out, grabbing my duffel bag from the truck at the station.

A nice lady at the reception desk hands most of us a set of keys, whoever wanted them, I walked outside and I pressed the unlock button, one of the civilian warthogs blinks. Inwardly I groan when I step into the vehicle, the only driver training I had ever received was from my dad and the Marine corps basic training.

I do my best to get to my hotel room in one piece which ends as soon as I hear a police siren go off behind me. I pulled over and the cop stepped out of his car, I roll down my my window and he stares at me.

"Yes?" I ask, impatiently.

"You are driving like a drunkard." He tells me, I just shrug.

"Step out." He tells me, I open the door and I step out, he holds a small device and I breathe into it when he instructs me to, he blinks at the results.

"Let me get this straight, your not drunk." He tells me, I nod. "Get back into your car and stop driving like that." He says to me, his tone laced with warning.

I manage to drive to my hotel and get settled in before walking over to a German bar across the street, labeled 'Gut Reich' which makes me laugh when I first read it, I step in and I order a drink, a bottle of whiskey is set before me.

I pull out my UNSC card to swipe it but the man behind the counter shakes his head. "First one's on the house." He says, nodding to my UNSC shirt. "The rest you pay for." I laugh and I take a swig, blinking as the whiskey takes its effect. I finish off the glass and I swipe my card again, another glass is set before me and I drink again, this process continues until I black out, waking up the next morning with a massive headache.

"Are you going to leave now?" I hear a female voice behind me say.

I clutch my head. "Dunno." I say quietly.

"Why so down? Drinking away your sorrows?" She asks, I just groan.

"Can't tell you." I answer, ONI had instructed us that nobody was to find out about the Covenant until the right time, messages were censored and people were taken off the board for spreading rumors about another race, I'm sure the refugees from Rullins were instructed the same.

"And why not?" She asks, in response I hold up my dog tags, I hear an audible sigh. "I guess that's why you have this pistol." She says, holding up my magnum with distaste.

"Gimme that!" I say, drunkily, she just laughs.

"Tell me why you're drinking so bad, then." She says to me.

"Fine... All of my family is dead, Innie's blew up our house." I lie, it was the only thing I could come up with, and it was half true at least.

I see her smirk drop for a second, she tosses me the magnum and I catch it as I sit up, luckily the safety is still on. "Sorry..." She says, still staring at me.

"Just fine." I answer, standing with a grunt, my headache starting to fade.

"Anything I can do to help?" She asks, I laugh. "What's your name?" I ask her.

"Lydia." She says to me, I nod.

"Friends just call me Shrake, nice to meet you." I say, shaking her hand.

"Shrake? That a nickname..?" She asks.

"Nope, my last name." I tell her, she just nods.

"Well, come back here anytime, were always open." She says, I nod and thank her, walking out. I walk over to as all pay phone, I swipe my card on it, the UNSC cards were accepted pretty much everywhere for anything, amazing of you ask me.

I called a taxi which picked me up and drove me to the nearest phone store, where I spent the rest of my funds for that campaign, I uploaded my number to the phone book in the Eztergom area and then I took the taxi to the ONI headquarters. The place was massive, one of the biggest in the city, when I stepped in I was greeted by a nice lady with blonde hair who showed me to Dean's office.

The man stood in the corner of the room, staring out the window at the city, he had a suit on, pale skin and black hair, faded blue eyes and stubble along his face.

"Good to have you back, Ryan." He says to me, turning and sitting down, gesturing for me to do the same.

When I sit he folds his hands on to the table, leaning over.

"How was your first drop?" He asks with a smile.

"You fucker." I answer, my fists clenched in my lap.

"I already reviewed your helmet camera footage, but I want to actually hear what happened from the man himself, so I ask again, what happened, exactly?" He asks me, his face completely straight.

"I watched a lot of people die, including close friends, I saved civilians and watched children die, and then when I come here to drink away my sorrows I'm not allowed to tell ANYONE what the actual fuck had happened!" I yell the last part, my hands tight on the table as I stand, I hear movement outside, I sit back down, Dean looks at me , surprised for a second.

"You're not allowed to tell people what had happened because we don't want panic, panic could destroy the UNSC, and everyone here at ONI knows it." He says to me, calmly.

I sigh, he starts speaking again. "I see that you are no longer able to shoot effectively, I thought the promotion and the class change was a nice touch, was it not?" He asks me, I just nod in response.

"Thank you for the report, Ryan, you can leave now." He says to me, nodding towards the door, I step out and I blink, a memory flashing before me.

_

I groan in frustration as Gunnery Sergeant Jackson leans over me as I do my fifteen push-ups, the men around me snickering as my arms start to shake.

"C'mon fat body! Five more!" He yells into my face.

The men behind me laugh as I finish and I stand up, the Sergeant moves on, continuing with his lecture about the old Marine Corps. The men behind me, Galvin and Owens constantly annoy me with their shit eating grins and snickering, they always asked how I joined up so early and why I wasn't home sitting in school, I mostly ignored them and continued to stare straight ahead, they wouldn't get me in trouble again.

"Like I was saying, Private Shrake has fucked up more times then I can count, which is a bad fucking thing considering who keeps getting him busted." He yells at us, staring past me at Owens.

"Sir!" I yell, I move out of the way as he walks past me, the Sergeant is smaller than Owens but he has an attitude of a bulldog.

"Owens! Galvin! As Marines you need to work as a team! Whenever Shrake here fucks up, your doing his fucking punishment until I can start counting!" He yells at them, he then turns and I step back into formation. I can literally feel the two glaring at me.

We all head off to the bunks when we are dismissed, I lay down and I try to sleep, I watch Galvin and Owens walk out with their pillow cases in their hands.

I fall asleep but in seconds I feel a hand clamp over my mouth, cutting off my supply of oxygen for the moment. I feel something hard smack down on top of me, but I can't see who or what is doing it, I see a white blur fly down into my gut, it feels like someone is dropping bricks on to me on purpose.

I try to cry out but the hand tightens around my mouth, I bite the hand, the man cries out, people around us start to wake up. I thrash wildly and I roll off the top bunk, hitting the polycrete floor with a grunt, another white flash above me, time to move. I roll under another bunk, the Marines around me start to get up, a fight breaks out between a few of the assaulters and some of the Marines.

I stand and I duck under one of the pillows, slamming my fist into the Marine's chest, knocking him over, I grab the pillow case, it is full of rocks. I slam it down on to him, over and over until a hand latches on to my shoulder, I calm down, my anger taken out on the soldier before me.

"Shrake, get back to bed." A voice says calmly, I turn, the Gunnery Sergeant stands behind me, full drill instructor dress. I nod and I drop the case, climbing back on to my bunk.

The next morning, the bodies of Cadet's Owens and Galvin were shipped off campus.

_

That was how I felt now, devastated but angry, mostly tired, I nod to the blonde as I walk out, I look ahead, Eztergom, beautiful as always, beckons me forward.

I do as ordered.

_  
>Author's note<p>

So, I have kept to my schedule of a chapter per week so far, I'm proud of myself for that, and I am excited to see new faces in the comment section, I hope more come! I can't wait for my story to gain more exposure, I want my writing to be tested by the world. But anyway, now that I have shared my dream I can explain the order of characters.

Marine  
>ODST<br>Pilot  
>Ranger<p>

That's how the chapters will go unless I do a half and half chapter where I feel like I have left too much out, I hope you enjoyed, review, favorite, and follow for more, share with your friends, sister, brother, and parents, I'll see you all next time.

Read on  
>-Rsk<p> 


	11. Metal Rebound

Chapter X: Metal Rebound

Reach, Epi Eridinus System

February 25th, 2531 UNSC Calendar

Sergeant Anson Hawkins

UNSC ODST Department

I exhale loudly, aiming down the sight of a civilian standard MA37, the closest thing I could get to the standard issue MA5B on Reach. I had been basically living and breathing at this range; The Slinger ever since I had gotten here, shooting out most of my problems during the day and drinking away my sorrows at the night, i hadn't seen Taylor and Wolfe since we had gotten here, but I know they are around.

I fire in short bursts at the target, bullets rip away at the mid section of the target, making a nice area of effect. My gun clicks empty and I then realize I was shaking, I look around to see people staring at me and the rifle I am holding, the world around darkened because of the dark range glasses I wear. I put the gun on to the table, and I turn to look at one of the people staring, I flash my ODST tattoo, a sign of true craziness among the civilians of the UNSC, the second they see it they withdraw their gazes, I walk out of the room into the bathroom.

I clutch the edges of a sink as I one handedly wash my face, I look up at myself in the mirror, my range glasses had already been taken off when I walked in here, so now my face was blatantly obvious.

My hazel eyes are paler than normal, the old scars remain on my face, one of the main reasons I don't take my helmet off. My hair is brown, but messy from long campaigns and forgetting to make it standard again, I trace the crisscrossing scars across my face with one of my fingers, only a few had seen them. The scars bear my hatred and my shame, I sigh as I remember how I had received them.

Specialist Anson Hawkins

Berlin, Germany

April 5th, 2521, UNSC Calendar

Unit, Classified

The streets of Berlin were burning, the Insurrectionists had a serious home to pick with the German government. I was young for the business, around twenty, sitting in that Pelican, I watch my team, Farren, Jock, and Dilly, all three of them the best killers I knew, true black ops. It would be the last time I saw them.

The Pelican lands, and we jump off as it starts to fly away, I wear a standard issue full face helmet and lightweight armor, for mobility and stealth purposes. The rest of my team wears the same, some painted different colors.

We all duck behind a few abandoned cars, idly chit chatting in team comm, we had switched from English to German, the pilot was American, like some of the Marines pinned down in the city. I look over at Dilly, he was peeking around the car, his shoulder exposed to the street in front of us. I watch as his shoulder is torn off, blood spraying on to the street behind us. I unsling my MA5B from my magnetic clamps, aiming it down the street.

"Shiesse! Fick!" He screams as he falls over, blood dribbles from his mouth as Farren runs over to help him.

"Holen Sie sich zurück! Scharfschützen!" I scream over at him, but it's too late, another round from said sniper blasts the top of Farren's head off, brain matter drips from his ruined head.

"Wir brauchen Unterstützung aus der Luft!" I hear Jock yell into the radio, an American starts talking.

"English you fucks!" The airman yells.

"We need fucking air support on our grid!" Jock repeats, the airmen responds with the sniper exploding in hellfire. We move again into an alley.

Rapid German is spat in our direction, several M7 SMG's aimed in our direction. I duck into cover as they spray, Jock is lucky enough to have fast reflexes and jump behind a dumpster before they opened up.

I pull a frag grenade from my belt, holding it up to Jock, he nods, I pull the pin. "Out!" I yell as I throw it over my cover between the enemies down the alley.

I pop out of cover as it goes off, I spray along their cover and finish off what was left of their squad. "Clear." I call over to Jock, we start to move again.

I look down the alley, a cry for help is screamed, one of the terrorists crawling, one of his legs cut off by the explosion, his hand is clenched around something. Jock aims his rifle.

"Jock wai-!" I start, but he fires, the alley erupts in flames, knocking my helmet off, I feel a massive sting across my face as I hit the ground, staring straight up at the blue sky.

I splash my face with water again, remembering everyone would cause me mental distress, but I don't care if I'm honest. I walk out of the bathroom and out of the gun range, picking up my giant machete and my M6G Magnum, putting both of the tools in the proper place on my belt.

I groan when my cell phone starts to ring, I pick it up and I tap the answer key on the screen. "Hello?" I ask, I hadn't spoken in about three days, my voice raspy from alcohol.

"Hawkins, it's Taylor." I hear her say.

"Whatsup, glass eye?" I ask her, I smile when I hear her groan.

"Wolfe wanted me to check in on you since you went off grid for a little while." She says.

"Gotcha, Taylor, I'm twenty nine, I don't need a baby sitter." I tell her.

"Well, what have you been doing for the last three days, then?" She asks, I step on to the side walk and I walk while I talk.

"I've been drinking and shooting." I answer.

"Evidently you do need a baby sitter, you remember not to tell anybody about... Them?" She asks, trying not to alarm the people around her.

"Don't worry about it." I answer, rolling my eyes slightly.

"Alright well- Wolfe! Stop that." She says with a giggle.

"You're going to make me sick, Glass." I say to her.

"I'll talk to you later, Anson." She says, hanging up.

I sigh, stepping into a small military bar, I had already shown my badassery by putting a Marine on the floor for back talking me, shortly after showing him my tattoo that marked me as a unique one of a kind Helljumper.

"What'll it be, Hawk?" I hear as I sit down, I look at the bar tender, a civilian who figured he'd do something nice for the veterans of the Insurrection war.

"I'll just take some Corona." I tell him, he nods and starts to make me the drink, I put my head in my hands, looking down at the counter.

"Here ya go." He says, placing it in front of me. "Hawk? Bro you look like you need to get laid." He says, my head snaps up.

"The fuck?" I ask with a laugh, he just grins. I get started on my drink as he explains himself.

"You just look lonely, and terrible, you also stink considering you've been walking out of here drunk every night for the last three days." He tells me, I just nod.

"A girl is the reason I've been coming here." I answer, he just raises an eyebrow.

"What's her name?" He asks.

"Her name was Haley." I answer, putting emphasis on 'was'.

"I see, lost her in battle?" He asks, I just nod. "How'd she go out?" He asks me, my brain clicks with a lie as he asks, I know I can't tell him how she actually died.

"Insurgent IED on Rullins." I answer, reaching into my pocket and pulling out her tags, he examines them and hands them back to me, I put them back in my pocket.

"Sorry for your loss." He says, apologetically.

"Just fine." I answer, finishing the glass, he pours me another and I down it.

"You're not getting drunk tonight, that's your last one, brother." He says, stepping away to help someone else, I watch him go, stopping in front of a Marine Sapper, surprisingly a woman.

She wears her BDU's and a grey T-shirt with the words 'UNSC Marine Corps' across the front, she has auburn hair and a pretty face, her left leg shifts uncomfortably, she has blue eyes although one of them is paler than the other.

I finish off my drink and I wait for the barkeep to walk away from her, I stand and I sit down next to her. "How're you?" I ask.

She just shrugs. "I've been better." She says, a thick Irish accent laces her voice, she turns and examines me briefly her eyes following the scars on my face until they locked with mine again.

"What happened?" I ask her, my left eyebrow raised.

"Lost my entire squad on Juno." She answers, I just nod, I had read the file about Juno, a human victory, one of the first in this new war.

"At least you won." I answer.

"Were you not on Juno?" She asks, I nod.

"Rullins II, lost all of my squad but two, and then reinforced some Army guys when they were in desperate need of assistance." I explain, she nods.

"Which branch are you in? I'm a Marine Sapper." She says proudly.

More than likely she hadn't noticed that I was an ODST because I was literally wearing blue jeans, black boots and a black shirt. "ODST, and I kinda guessed you were a Sapper from the shirt." I answer, she raises her eyebrows in surprise.

"You were looking?" She asks, a grin spreading across her face, literally stone walling me.

"Ah... No?" I answer, I am the worst liar ever.

"Uh huh, anyway, what's it like in those drop pods of yours?" She asks me, turning from the topic causing me stress.

"Very comfortable, especially when you smash into the ground at three hundred miles per hour." I answer with a laugh, she just grins and downs her drink.

"How old are you, ODST?" She asks.

"Technically, that's classified, but the fact I'm a Black op and not a Green op can probably tell you." I answer, a shit eating grin on my face.

"So, around thirty?" She asks.

"Bam, ONI sniper." I tell her, she laughs and we keep talking for a little while, originally from New Alexandria, she joined the Marines when she was twenty five, working on Longsword bombers until the unofficial ONI draft for more soldiers against the Covenant happened, where she became a Combat Sapper, who always went in first and made sure our guys had trenches or some other type of man made cover to keep them safe.

I explained my story about being an ODST, leaving out my experience in Germany and being screened by ONI, which was still classified, I told her about training, the one day we did war games.

ODST Boot Camp

September 7th, 2526, UNSC Calendar

Boot camp was hell, after Berlin I had joined the Colonial Military, which was quickly disbanded a year ago after the first battle of Harvest. Yeah, that's the stuff you learn in the final phase of ODST training.

But, now that I was on the ground of the training facility, after an orbital drop, I had to get focused. This exercise was a war game, team one, my team, dropped from orbit and attempted to attack the facility that team two was defending, all while using paintballs that could knock a charging bull on its ass unconscious.

I step out of my pod after I launch the door forward off of its hinges, I grab the MA5B from the weapon holster inside and I crouch down, looking around while my HUD tried to get feedback from the rest of team one.

"Bam, your dead." I hear from behind me, I turn my head and I see Winters crouching in a bush, his gun aimed at the ground.

"Fucker." I say with a laugh, he jogs out, the rest of One behind him, we all get into a circle.

"Right, Team two is holed up somewhere in that direction." Winters starts, pointing through the forest towards a stone compound. "Which means we gotta find a viable distraction to make sure they can't see the main team." He says, we all nod, snow starts to drift from the sky, hitting the ground all around us. "That'll work." He says, that's when the blizzard starts.

Our team trudges through the forest, most of us find cover under bushes and rocks to cover us from the snow, our ODST armor was for training purposes which means we didn't have the full, heat controlled environment inside of our armor. We were left to freeze, but then again, so were they.

"Alpha, move up on the first wall of the compound, cover your tracks, over?" I hear Winters say, he was over to our left by ten yards with Bravo team, Alpha team consisted of me, and three other guys by the names of: Hasi, Mcooley, and Degain.

Hasi was our fire team leader, like plants in the spring we rise up out of the snow, trudging forward and covering our tracks as we go. When we reach the facility we halt on the wall, I hear footsteps on the other side of the wall.

"Hawkins, knife out, hit these fuckers." Hasi says, I step to the front of the line, pulling out the training knife we had been given, outfitted with a taser instead of a blade, this would give the impression of sticking someone, without causing any permanent damage. I'd leave the temporary part for my victim to worry about.

I spin around the wall and I stab the taser directly into the man's chest armor, I spin around, the taser connects with the second man's helmet, electrocuting him and putting him on his ass.

"Hawkins, status?" Hasi says from the other asks of the wall.

"Two down, six to go." I answer, my team moves around the wall, quickly burying the unconscious men in snow and marking them on the instructor's net for pickup.

"Winters, your clear to move up." Hasi says through comm.

Bravo team seems to materialize next to us, we cover our sectors before splitting up again, Bravo moves to the right of the compound while Alpha moves left, we don't run into any contact on our way to the front door.

Other than training equipment, our team was given a flash bang, military purposed, it was the only real thing we possessed. The doors open, from the inside.

Writers tosses his flash bang straight into one of Two's members, Winters quickly shuts the small wooden door and waits, a loud bang comes from the room, Winters gestures for Alpha to move in, I step in front of the door and I kick it open.

I walk in, Hasi and Mcooley fire two shots each, both shots hitting the only two guards in the room.

"Four to go." Winters says, we all walk in.

The door slams shut behind us, I hear something get wrapped around the door knob.

"Hey fuckers! Watch out!" I hear from above us, three frag grenades, outfitted with paint fall into the room.

Apparently I decide to be the only sensible person and I run to the edge of the room, a wooden table sits untouched, I place my hand on it and I flip it, taking cover behind it. The grenades explode, sending paint everywhere, hitting everything around me.

"Fuck!" I hear Winters scream before going silent, the door opens and I get ready.

"Double tap everyone, Sarge says we haven't won yet." I hear from the door, I hear metal boots on the floor and gunshots as they tag everyone, I grip my paint Magnum as they walk over to me.

I jump up, the two men in front of me obviously weren't expecting that as they try to raise their weapons, I pop off two shots, each one hitting one of the men in the chest and knocking them over.

Another soldier raises his MA5 SMG variant at me, I fire and hit his face plate, another frag grenade rolls into the room and I duck behind the table again.

Once the grenade pops, I reach around the table and I grab one of the MA5's the soldier's had been holding, I pop out and I spray around ten shots out of the door, a horn blares in the distance.

I look around, I hear a comm link click on to my HUD.

"Team One wins." The camp AI announces.

"Wow." She says, she seemed surprised by my story, one of her eyebrows raised.

"What? Don't believe me?"

She grins. "No, I definitely believe you." She says to me.

"Well, I've said my part, I'm sure your training was no way near as intense and brutal as mine." I say to her, she laughs and starts the story.

"Well actually, one of our tests they put down live land mines from like three hundred years ago under our firing range, and told us to find and disable them." She explains, I nod and I maintain eye contact, paying attention.

"Well, considering how old they were, the mines were supposed to be malfunctioning and only beep a little bit when you step on one, and most of them were, except for one which was a miracle, that thing was fully operational and nobody found out until it was too late..." She says.

"You don't have to tell the rest of the story." I tell her, I feel odd, my body is more than likely calling for more alcohol that the barkeep was not going to hand out.

She nods. "Alright, well how long are you going to be on Reach?" She asks.

"Ten more days." I answer, she nods and we exchange phone numbers, she then walks out of the bar.

I stand and I think the barkeep, I walk out the door and up the street, admiring Reach's architecture, I find a quiet hotel and I grab a room using more of my Special Operations raise.

When I step into the room, I am greeted with the smell of a clean room, a soft bed sits in the middle of the room, a TV in front of it with a carpeted floor, the bathroom being next to the door, I decide to use it before hitting the sack.

I wash my hands afterwards and I then throw all of the blankets and pillows off of the bed, I pick up the mattress and I lay it down on to the ground next to the bed. I lay down on it, my lights shut off automatically as I fall asleep.

I wake up, and I stand, my body taking autopilot as I eat, get changed and brush my teeth. I walk out of the apartment, but there is no hallway, just four doors in front of me, I look into the first one, Haley sits in the room, similar to the interior of the ODST pod. She starts to melt away, I look away and I head over to the next room, the blonde I had met at the bar sits there, cowering in fear of me, I look down and I realize I am pointing an MA5 SMG straight at her, I fire.

I cry out as her head explodes, I move on. Wolfe and Taylor sit in the next room, time stops around them as they kiss, a goodbye kiss. Wolfe stands and walks away, disappearing until a gunshot echoes throughout the room. I walk to the next room, but this time instead of standing at the door I walk inside, several ODST's stand next to me, we all get dressed into full battle armor.

Several men walk into the room holding weapons, a BR55 is roughly shoved into my hands, we turn to the left face in unison, facing an ONI officer, his face blurry.

"Your duty here is to keep a secret!" He yells to us as we walk out of the room and into a hallway, outside to a brick courtyard, fifteen unarmed men wearing bags on their heads sit facing the wall.

We line up, facing away from the men. "About face!" The officer yells. We all turn, all of our helmets are polarized.

"Present arms!" He screams, we all in unison aim our weapons.

"Fire!" He spits, we open up, I personally splat two of them to the wall, blood seeps from the wounds of the prisoners.

A crowd cries out, I turn, a little girl runs past our firing line, clutching one of the men.

"Hawkins!" The officer yells, I stop aiming at the men and I stand at attention.

"Deal with the rat." He says dismissively, I salute and I step forward, the girl looks up in fear before my metal gauntlet collides with her face, knocking her to the ground.

I unhook a pistol from my belt, my vision fades as I pull the trigger.

I'm in full combat gear again, I jog around a corner of an alleyway, I take a look at the sky, several Covenant cruisers hover above me. I jog out of the alley on to the street, abandoned cars and bodies litter the streets, I look around and I recognize the architecture.

Reach is in flames.

My eyes fly open, my body drenched in sweat, I had rolled out of my makeshift bed in my nightmares. The phone starts to ring.

"Answer." I call out to the phone machine, I reflect on what I had seen in the dream, causing me to shudder.

"Hey Anson." I hear on the phone, it sounded like the girl from the bar.

"Hey." I call out, the phone catches my response.

"You sound distracted, you doing anything?" She asks, I stand and I pick up the phone.

"Just recovering." I answer.

"From what?"

"Nightmares, part of ODST disorder." I answer her.

She laughs. "Got it, you wanna hang out later?" She asks.

"Kind've weird for a girl to ask out a guy isn't it?" I ask her, innocently.

"Anson, we solved this problem five hundred years ago." She tells me, I laugh.

"Sure, just send me a place."

The phone beeps as she hangs up.

The power shuts off. I look around, I grab my shirt and my fatigues and I put them on, I grab my black boots and I the them tightly, I jog out of the apartment, someone screams from down the hallway.

I run down the stairs of the hotel, and out the door.

A Covenant cruiser sits above.

I thrash and I wake up on the floor again. The phone rings. "Fuck!"

Author's note

Hi...

Sorry for tricking you ( if you were tricked ) but I feel that this character, Anson, has literally seen and been through enough shit to have not been able to tell the difference between a dream/nightmare and real life. I dunno about anybody else but sometimes I have dreams where I think I am awake, then something fucked up happens and then I actually wake up. Anyway, this is chapter ten, time to celebrate... I guess, in other news I have been balancing on a thin line above a pit of dangerous things while balancing school and video games I feel like playing and writing by uploading every Wednesday, and keeping my grades in check, which is fantastic.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed! Leave a review if you want to critique/ inspire me or a favorite/follow to make me feel good about myself when I look at my story through the Manage Story option.

I would like to personally wish you all a VERY merry Christmas, or happy holidays which is more politically correct.

Danke for reading!

Keep doing so

-Rsk


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